Bitcoin kept climbing on August 22, with BlockBeats citing renewed institutional inflows, a softer macro backdrop, improved U.S. regulatory expectations and large short liquidations as the main drivers.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have recently pulled in fresh capital again. Data showed net inflows of about $517 million on August 19 and $606 million on August 20. Julio Moreno, head of research at CoinShares, said ETFs bought about 7,500 BTC in a single day, the highest level since April.
Market participants linked part of the move to the U.S. Treasury’s expanded buyback plan for long-dated bonds, which they said weakened the dollar and boosted the so-called devaluation trade, pushing money toward Bitcoin and gold.
Trump administration efforts to advance crypto market structure legislation also eased concerns over regulatory uncertainty. In Congress, work is under way on frameworks such as the CLARITY Act, which aims to define the roles of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in digital asset oversight.
Analysts said Bitcoin already has a relatively high level of regulatory clarity and that these bills may have limited direct impact on BTC itself, but could help reduce the regulatory risk premium across the broader crypto market.
The rally also triggered a wave of short covering. Data showed that over the past two to three days, short liquidations in the crypto market topped $4 billion, including about $2.7 billion in a single day and another $1.2 billion in a subsequent round.
Analysts said the squeeze was among the largest short-covering events in the crypto market in recent weeks. Market participants said Bitcoin’s medium-term uptrend could continue if institutional inflows remain strong and the regulatory backdrop keeps improving.