Bitcoin held just above $78,400 as of Asian morning hours Tuesday while the risk assets around it sold off. The token barely moved over 24 hours, swinging between roughly $77,200 and $79,200, CoinDesk data show.
August closed with a 24% gain, its strongest month since November 2024, and Strategy returned as a buyer last week with $370 million of bitcoin, its first purchases in about two months.
HYPE was the only real gainer among the large caps, up about 4% to near $84. Ether at just above $2,440 and solana near $104 each gave up about 1%, while XRP held just under $1.40 and BNB near $693.
Tron and dogecoin took the worst of it, both down roughly 2% to near 33 cents and 8 cents.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell about 1% to near 25,300 with Tencent and Meituan both off close to 3%. Japan’s Nikkei slipped to 66,185 and South Korea’s Kospi clawed out a small gain on a semiconductor rebound. Brent crude rose nearly 1% to about $91 a barrel after U.S. military action near the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.
Oil is now driving the rates market. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield ticked up to 4.78% and traders put roughly 64% odds on a hike at the Sept. 16 Federal Reserve meeting, up from about 36% before Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole address. Gold slipped to about $4,435 an ounce after a 10% August.
“Holding around $78,000 after a 23% surge is more telling than the surge itself,” said Yusuf Fakhro, partner at ARP Digital, in an email. Perpetual open interest sits at its lowest since May and U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs just posted their strongest week of demand since October 2025, he added, a combination that puts the August move on spot demand with no crowded leveraged long left to unwind.
Those flows have already turned. Trading firm Wintermute’s desk counted $924 million of bitcoin ETF inflows across nine straight positive sessions before a $202 million outflow ended the streak Friday, and the $82,000 level has been rejected every time since.
“Market’s on edge but lacks directional conviction in the short term,” said Jasper De Maere, OTC trader at Wintermute, in an email.
Friday’s August payrolls print is the last major labor read before the September FOMC. With hike odds already near two-thirds, a hot number sends yields higher and puts bitcoin back on the $77,200 low it set overnight.