US debt worries and a shifting regulatory agenda helped lift crypto markets this week, with Bitcoin posting a 23.5% weekly gain. Cointelegraph said BTC traded around $77,559 at the time of writing after briefly moving above $79,000 on Friday.
Barchart said Thursday that Bitcoin had climbed back above its 200-day moving average for the first time since November 2025. That indicator is widely watched as a measure of the longer-term trend, and a move above it is often read as a sign that bullish momentum is returning.
The move was not limited to Bitcoin. Ethereum gained 31%, Solana rose 28% and XRP jumped 53%. Bitcoin and Ether ETFs brought in more than $2.61 billion combined last week. Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin position through Strategy also moved above its breakeven level of $75,385, while Polymarket odds of Bitcoin reaching $90,000 before 2027 climbed to 48%.
Publicly listed crypto-linked firms also moved higher. Shares of Canaan, Metaplanet, Coinbase and Robinhood all posted double-digit gains during the week.
Debt concerns send capital toward crypto and precious metals
The US debt pile crossed $40 trillion this week. The report said there is no concrete plan to balance the budget or pay the debt down beyond a broad goal of growing the economy. Annual interest costs on the debt have now exceeded Medicare spending and rank behind only social security among the government’s expenses.
The Kobeissi Letter linked the fast rise in precious metals and crypto to a mix of inflation, deficit spending and Treasury policy. It argued that record government deficit spending, along with the Treasury Department’s pledge to at least double the size of certain debt buyback operations to $4 billion, helped push both asset classes higher.
Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio said investors should allocate around 15% of their portfolios to gold and “a bit of Bitcoin” to prepare for the fallout from US debt problems.
“My guess, which I suppose will be a bad one, is that [a US debt crisis] will come in three years, give or take two, if the course we’re on is not changed,” Dalio said.
Trump presses for CLARITY after meeting crypto executives
US President Donald Trump again called for passage of the CLARITY Act after meeting crypto industry leaders including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
Trump urged Congress to pass “a fair version” of the bill to keep the United States “ahead of China.” The market structure bill passed the House of Representatives in July 2025 and faces a procedural vote on Sept. 15, where it will need 60 votes to advance.
“It’s very bipartisan, I would say,” Trump said. “Lot of Democrats support.”
Democratic senators, however, appear unlikely to support the bill without additional concessions tied to ethics provisions involving Trump. Senator Ruben Gallego said, “I think, unfortunately, what the President means is fair to him. The president doesn’t just get to decide what level of regulation he gets.”
Trump also moved Hyperliquid during the meeting, with the token rising 20% after he said, “I understand that Mike [Selig, CFTC chair] is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion.”
SEC proposal opens the door to new token issuance exemptions
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules for the crypto sector that could either pressure lawmakers to move on the CLARITY Act or set off a new Initial Cryptocurrency Offering boom.
The proposal is open for public comment for 60 days. Under the plan, crypto projects could qualify for exemptions allowing token issuance of up to $5 million over a four-year period, and up to $75 million over a 12-month period if they meet stricter reporting and structural requirements. The package also includes a safe harbor proposal that would exempt cryptocurrencies from being treated as “investment contracts.”
SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce said that “a whole generation has struggled” with the SEC applying “a set of inapt rules to crypto.” She said the new guidance marks an important step toward “putting clear, sensible, enforceable rules in place for crypto offerings.”
CFTC says it will move on crypto rules if CLARITY stalls
Michael Selig, chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said the agency will proceed with its own crypto regulatory work if the CLARITY Act fails in the Senate.
Selig said he had already directed staff to allow registered and non-registered entities to offer “crypto asset trading on a leveraged or margined basis” and to explore protections for developers.
“We’re going to give CLARITY its breathing room for a vote, but if the Democrats cannot support a bipartisan work product, which reflects compromises from both sides of the aisle, and ultimately send a fair version of the bill to the President’s desk, then rest assured, I will direct CFTC staff to move swiftly to propose these new rules for the industry,” he said.
Weekly winners and losers across the market
By the end of the week, Bitcoin was up 23.5% at $77,559, Ether had gained 31.1% to $2,456 and XRP was up 53.3% to $1.52. CoinMarketCap put total crypto market capitalization at $2.63 trillion.
Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, the biggest weekly gainers were Pump.fun (PUMP), up 98.9%; Ethena (ENA), up 98.3%; and Stacks (STX), up 94.8%.
The biggest weekly laggards were JUST (JST), down 4.3%; MemeCore (M), down 2.9%; and Sun (SUN), down 1%.
Standard Chartered says $100,000 year-end target may be too low
Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, said Bitcoin could move toward its all-time high of $126,000 before year-end, with the recovery possibly accelerating after Oct. 6.
In a Friday note, Kendrick said the latest rally had been driven largely by short liquidations, while inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs had also started to recover. He added that low open interest could leave room for more investors to return if prices keep rising.
“For the first time this year there is now a risk my end year forecast (of USD100k) is too low,” Kendrick wrote.
Reuters/Ipsos poll questions Trump family crypto gains
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that a majority of US respondents said it was not “appropriate” for Donald Trump and his family to make billions from cryptocurrency investments while he is in office.
According to the poll, which surveyed 1,166 people from Aug. 14 to 17, 63% said it was not appropriate. Among Republicans, 69% said it was appropriate, while 92% of Democrats said it was not.
Bitget CEO expects Bitcoin near current levels by year-end
Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said she expects Bitcoin to remain broadly around current levels through the end of the year despite the recent jump, citing interest rates and broader macro conditions as key variables.
She said the possibility of higher interest rates was one of several factors that could weigh on prices.
“If any of that happens, the price should go down, at least theoretically,” Chen said, adding that BTC has become more closely tied to traditional finance and more sensitive to broader macro conditions.
Chen said Bitcoin could end the year anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 above or below current levels.
MANTRA token hits record low as chain halts block production
MANTRA’s native token fell to an all-time low of $0.004126 at around 11:00 pm UTC on Thursday, shortly before MANTRA Chain stopped producing blocks and the team announced a precautionary halt following an unexplained incident.
MANTRA said Friday that it was “aware of an incident affecting MANTRA Chain” and had halted the network while it investigated. “We don’t have a root cause or timeline to share yet,” the project said, adding that all endpoints and transactions had been frozen.
The halt stopped assets from moving on MANTRA Chain and led affected exchanges to pause deposits and withdrawals, with no timeline for resumption. On Aug. 22, MANTRA said that “the vulnerability in the Cosmos-EVM module has been fixed, the network has resumed, and no user funds were affected.”