The price of bitcoin blasted past $79,000 around 9 a.m. EDT on Monday, August 24, 2026, as buyers kept their foot on the gas following last week’s blistering rally.
Bitcoin Storms Past $79K Before Hitting Resistance Near $80K
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Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin gained 24% in 7 days as ETF demand helped BTC punch above $79,000.
- Eric Balchunas said U.S. bitcoin ETFs pulled in nearly $2B last week.
- Bitcoin faces $79,406 resistance as the Fed’s September rate decision looms.
Bitcoin Blasts Through $79,000 as Bulls Keep the Pedal Down
Monday is shaping up as an extension of bitcoin’s sharpest weekly run in quite some time, and right now, bitcoin’s daily RSI (relative strength index) is flashing deeply overbought conditions in the 79–82 range, while the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) remains firmly bullish, with its line well above the signal and a positive histogram around 1,500–3,400.
Bitcoin punched out an intraday high of roughly $79,406 on Bitstamp before sellers finally pushed back. The leading crypto asset has climbed 2.5% against the greenback today and more than 24% over the last seven days. While bulls keep pressing, bitcoin trading volume remains moderate at $36.758 billion over the last 24 hours. Bitcoin futures open interest now stands at $57.57 billion, with CME and Binance commanding the biggest share.
ETF Demand Pours Fuel on Bitcoin’s Blistering Rally
A major force behind bitcoin’s rally has been relentless demand for U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas zeroed in on those flows on X as BTC charged higher again. “Bitcoin ETFs took just about $2b last week- their best week since the Good Ol Days of Oct 2025 as price went from $64k to $77k in a New York minute (that counts as God candle yeah?).”
“Anyway, this is one of the benefits of a commodity in a constant state of supply shock.”
Treasury Buybacks and Leverage Throw Gasoline on the Fire
Other forces fueling bitcoin’s fiery run include the U.S. Treasury’s decision to at least double the size of longer-dated, 10- to 30-year buyback operations. Leverage has also poured gasoline on the move, with roughly $3 billion liquidated from derivatives markets and some estimates putting the rally-wide wreckage closer to $4 billion.
Today alone, $337.28 million has been wiped out across crypto derivatives, including $66.43 million in BTC short positions.
Bitcoin Slams Into $79,406 as Major Catalysts Loom
Despite the latest rise, bitcoin ran into a wall after touching $79,406 Monday morning, with resistance above that level looking increasingly stubborn. Over the coming weeks, traders will be watching several major catalysts, including the Jackson Hole central bank symposium and the Fed’s September federal funds rate decision. Eyes will also remain glued to tensions between the U.S. and Iran and developments around the Strait of Hormuz.
Any one of these pressure points could send BTC sharply in either direction. At the same time, bitcoin believers argue the next leg higher could dwarf anything the market has seen before. Strive CEO Matt Cole added fuel to that conviction Monday, arguing that bitcoin could be the thoroughbred leaving everything else in the dust.
“Bitcoin priced in gold is reinforcing my view that the next Bitcoin cycle will be the strongest we have ever seen,” Cole explained on the social media platform X. “The dollar thesis I wrote about below and the growing hunt for scarcity in an AI-driven world of abundance both point toward a powerful structural tailwind for scarce assets. The BTC/gold ratio adds another important signal: within that expanding scarcity trade, bitcoin may be beginning to reassert its relative leadership and reclaim the title of fastest horse.”
At 9:55 a.m. EDT Monday, BTC was cruising at $78,272 and even lower after slamming into resistance at $79,406 and above. By 10:15 a.m., buyers had muscled it back above $79,000. Bulls keep hammering away, but that stubborn resistance ceiling overhead (specifically the psychological $80K zone) still refuses to crack.
