Bitcoin Experiences Strongest August Since 2017, Rallying Over 24%

Stay up to date with our monthly market commentary:

• Bitcoin experiences its strongest month since 2017, rallying by over 24% month-on-month.
• August also marked the strongest month in 2026 for US spot Bitcoin ETFs, which pulled in $3.3 billion in aggregate net inflows.
• Bitcoin (BTC) gained over 24% in August, while Ether (ETH) rallied by 32% versus last month. 

Market Overview - August

Bitcoin rallied sharply in August, trading around $78,000 at month-end, approximately 24% above its July level.*

Bitcoin reached an intra-month high of approximately $81,300 on August 28 before closing the month in the $78,000s. This marks Bitcoin’s strongest August performance since 2017. 

The rally can be primarily attributed to the US Treasury's August 19 announcement that it would increase the maximum size of liquidity-support buybacks for 10- to 30-year nominal securities from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation, effective September 9th. 

That move signaled to the market that the Treasury is prepared to actively support liquidity at the long end of the curve, where the 30-year yield had climbed above 5.3%, its highest level since 2007. While the buybacks are a debt-management operation rather than quantitative easing, investors read the intervention as a more supportive liquidity backdrop for risk-on assets (and Bitcoin), triggering a wave of short covering that saw more than $3 billion in crypto short positions liquidated within the week.

Additionally, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded approximately $1.92 billion in aggregate net inflows from August 17 through August 21, bolstering the rally, while positive regulatory developments in the US gave the digital currency a further boost. 

On August 18, the SEC proposed Regulation Crypto Assets, a proposed framework for certain crypto-related securities offerings, and the White House convened cryptocurrency and Wall Street executives on August 19.

Crypto Asset Market Performance Review

Most major cryptoassets followed Bitcoin’s lead and rallied in August. ZEC was the most notable outperformer, ahead of HYPE. 

Bitcoin (BTC) opened the month around $62,800 and rallied up to $81,330, before correcting down to around $78,000* to close out the month. The rest of the market followed.

For the biggest performer, Zcash (ZEC), this broader rally was helped along by Grayscale's launch of its Zcash ETF, trading under the ticker ZCSH on NYSE Arca. The fund became the first US exchange-traded product focused on a privacy-oriented crypto asset. Coupled with its late-July Ironwood upgrade, which restored verifiable supply integrity to the network in response to a critical counterfeiting vulnerability and potentially helped return confidence, ZEC price saw an increase of around 80%.

HYPE was the second-best performer among the largest cryptoassets by market cap, rallying by 57% in August and setting a new all-time high on August 27. The exchange token received a boost from the announcement by US President Donald Trump that CFTC Chairman Mike Selig was working on ways to bring Hyperliquid into the United States “in a fully compliant and legal fashion,” and the news that the Hyperliquid Policy Center, which is an independent advocacy group tied to the Hyperliquid ecosystem, and perpetuals trading platform trade [XYZ] submitted a commen letter to the SEC to ask for a pre-IPO perpetuals trading regulatory framework.

Institutional Interest in Bitcoin

August saw Goldman Sachs agree to acquire NEOS Investments, picking up its $1.1 billion Bitcoin income ETF in the deal. Spot Bitcoin ETFs also had a strong month, pulling in $3.3 billion in net inflows.

Goldman Sachs Buys an ETF Platform With a $1.1 Billion Bitcoin Fund

Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire NEOS Investments in a cash and equity deal worth up to $2.25 billion, with part of the consideration contingent on performance and service commitments. Closing is expected in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

NEOS manages roughly $30 billion across 19 options-based income ETFs, and one of their funds is BTCI, at about $1.1 billion. The fund doesn’t hold Bitcoin directly, but gets exposure through Bitcoin ETPs and generates income by writing call options on Bitcoin futures ETFs. The platform reports a 26.73% distribution rate on it, with a published 30-day SEC yield of 1.62%. 

Goldman filed for its own Bitcoin Premium Income ETF back in April 2026, and reports at the time suggested a launch date around the end of June, but this never came to pass. Now, with this deal, the firm is getting a Bitcoin fund already at scale.

US Spot Bitcoin ETFs Pulled in $3.3b in August for the Strongest Month of 2026**

US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded approximately $3.3 billion in aggregate net inflows during the first 20 trading sessions of August. That made August the strongest month of 2026 through August 28 and the strongest monthly showing since October 2025, when the funds attracted approximately $3.42 billion.

The funds recorded net inflows on 15 trading days and net outflows on five. All nine sessions from August 17 through August 27 were positive, generating approximately $3.04 billion in cumulative net inflows. The largest daily inflow of the month was approximately $606 million on August 20, the highest daily total since early May.

The August figures represent a substantial improvement from June, when the funds recorded approximately $4.5 billion in net outflows, and July, when net inflows totaled approximately $205 million.

*Closing price data is from August 31st, 2026, 11:00 am GMT.

**ETF figures are based on aggregate US spot Bitcoin ETF flow data available through August 28, 2026.

‍