Bitcoin (BTC) Ends 78-Day Wait for $70K After Trump Floats ‘Sizable’ Purchase

Bitcoin (BTC) pushed back above $70,000 on Aug. 19 for the first time since June 2, ending a 78-day stretch below that level after President Donald Trump said the U.S. government has “been talked about” making a “sizable” purchase of the token. The session had two distinct catalysts: the Federal Reserve’s July minutes, which came and went without damage to risk appetite, and Trump, speaking at the White House crypto meeting, did not rule out accumulating a large amount of Bitcoin. Asked whether the administration planned such a purchase, he tied the idea directly to the dollar: “It’s been talked about. It’s been very, very good for the dollar. If you came in with recommendations, I would certainly listen.” At the same meeting, he urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act and said the United States must remain the “undisputed leader” in digital assets. His comments did not commit the government to a purchase; no size or timeline was disclosed. Those remarks carry extra weight because the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve created in March 2025 has been built from seized coins, not open-market buying; a sizable government purchase conducted in the open market would be a first. Exchange data showed BTC briefly touching $70,000 on Binance and $70,022 on Coinbase during the session, after trading below $64,000 two days earlier and near $62,000 in early July. Our reading of the order flow is that much of the spike was short covering and macro positioning rather than a sudden burst of spot accumulation, but the presidential signal still gave dip buyers a fresh reason to defend the breakout. The immediate test is whether buyers can hold the level overnight, as Washington’s words meet real supply in the order books.

The move crushed leveraged bears. Traders betting against the market absorbed $1.23 billion in losses within a single hour, and one Hyperliquid whale saw its entire 1,800 BTC short, valued at roughly $117 million, wiped out. The broader macro setup helped as well. The U.S. Treasury said it would increase its long-end debt buyback program to a minimum of $4 billion per operation, a step that dragged the 30-year yield off 5.337%, the highest long-term borrowing cost since 2007. The Treasury’s move was aimed at improving liquidity in the long end of the curve, and traders read it as a tailwind for assets that pay no income. Because Bitcoin pays no income, a cheaper long-term rates environment tends to support hard-asset stores of value. The Federal Reserve’s July minutes described inflation as elevated but contained no hawkish push beyond the three known dissenters; market pricing for a September hike slipped to 34%, and the dollar softened. That left the macro backdrop supportive for non-yielding assets into the close. Even with the breakout, historical context tempers the bullish case. Bitcoin traded roughly 44% below its record all-time high of $126,080 set last October during the session, and this reclaim breaks this year’s pattern in which gold gained 33% while Bitcoin fell 46%. The contrast with gold, which has outperformed Bitcoin this year, underscores how much catching up would be required for a full recovery. Whether that marks the end of the bear-market phase or a sharp mean-reversion rally inside a larger downtrend is the key argument heading into the next session. The 78-day wait for $70,000 is over on the session tape, and the breakout resets sentiment for Bitcoin and the wider altcoin market. The technical reclaim is not the same as a trend reversal; confirmation will require the level to hold on a daily close.

The squeeze extended well beyond the hourly damage to a single whale. Across the broader digital-asset market, short positions worth $27.35 billion were force-liquidated over a 24-hour window, the largest such total since CoinGlass began tracking the data in June 2021 and the first time the figure has blown past $27 billion. Long liquidations, by contrast, totaled just $246.71 million, underscoring how one-sided the move was. The fresh reading updates the earlier intraday snapshot and confirms that the Trump-driven breakout triggered a historic unwind of bearish leverage rather than a gradual repricing. Altcoins amplified the effect, with ether, XRP and solana all posting double-digit gains over the same stretch, a sign that the short squeeze rippled well beyond Bitcoin's own order books.

Revised CoinGlass data for the full 24-hour window now puts short-side losses at nearly $2.7 billion, surpassing the $2.47 billion in short liquidations recorded during the Oct. 10, 2025 crash — historically the largest deleveraging event in crypto — but without the accompanying long-side damage. Across 172,108 traders, total liquidations reached almost $3 billion, with shorts at roughly 92% of the wipeouts against about $257 million on the long side. Bitcoin swung more than $5,700 from Wednesday's low near $64,100 during the session. More than $1 billion of bitcoin shorts were closed in roughly an hour, while ether accounted for $1.13 billion of the total and solana $104.67 million. Whether bitcoin holds above $69,000 through the Asian and European sessions remains the key test, as squeeze-driven moves built on forced buying rather than fresh demand tend to give back part of their gains.

By Aug. 20, Bitcoin extended its advance to an intraday high of $71,570, the first time the asset traded above $71,000 since June 2, after a 24-hour low of $64,272 — a roughly $7,000 swing over two sessions. The move rippled through major altcoins: Ethereum surged 18.9% to $2,278, Solana gained 13.5% to $87.49, and BNB rose 6.85% to $643.54. The total crypto market capitalization increased about 5.97% to $2.44 trillion, with Bitcoin's share at 58.47%. The continuation follows the previous day's historic short squeeze, but traders warned that momentum from forced buying typically fades as liquidation volumes dry up, leaving the sustainability of the breakout in question.

Thursday's session extended the rally further, with Bitstamp data showing Bitcoin touching an intraday high of $71,992 — now within reach of the $72,000 mark — on an 11.3% 24-hour gain and a market capitalization of $1.44 trillion. Updated Coinglass figures show the squeeze deepening beyond the prior totals: bitcoin shorts erased nearly $1.7 billion, while total market liquidations reached $3.35 billion, with short positions comprising $3.07 billion of that sum. Ethereum added 19% to about $2,320, and XRP, SOL, DOGE and Zcash each posted double-digit gains. The White House meeting also carried token-specific catalysts: Trump suggested his administration was actively coordinating to bring Hyperliquid to US soil, a quasi-endorsement that drove HYPE within 3% of its $76.87 all-time high at roughly $74, while LINK advanced to $10.86 after Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov addressed the gathering.

(as of 16:03 UTC) COINOTAG’s proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R scoring engine rates $72,578.3850 resistance at 100/100, driven by Donchian Upper, HVN, Fibo 0.618 and RSI OB, with the next ceiling at $73,670.9933 (54/100) from R2, LVN and ATR Upper, followed by $76,859.0708 (57/100) on Fibo 0.786 and R3. Support sits at $69,924.1600 (56/100) near HVN, VWAP and Fibo 0.500, while the strongest floor remains $67,062.9031 (67/100) from Fibo 0.382, LVN, EMA 50 and BB Middle. RSI at 79.41 and a bullish MACD confirm the uptrend. Derivatives show a perp funding rate of 0.0028%, $14.53 billion open interest and a 1.11 long/short ratio (52.7% long), pointing to moderately leveraged bullish positioning. The Fear & Greed Index at 62/100 keeps sentiment in greed. A close above $72,578.3850 opens $73,670.9933; losing $69,924.1600 exposes $67,062.9031, and a break below that 67/100 support — built on Fibo 0.382, LVN, EMA 50 and BB Middle — would invalidate the bullish thesis for Bitcoin.