Bitcoin Tops $81,000 — Is the Debasement Trade Back?
Key Takeaways
- •Bitcoin crossed $81,000 for the first time since January, peaking at $81,160 before pulling back, and has gained 23% over the past seven days.
- •The U.S. Treasury's announcement that it will at least double its liquidity-support buyback operations pressured the dollar and benefited non-yielding assets such as Bitcoin.
- •The rally is prompting speculation that the debasement trade, which favors hard assets like Bitcoin and precious metals as hedges against currency depreciation, may be returning after fading following Bitcoin's October decline.
- •U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded nearly $2 billion in inflows last week, their best week since October, reflecting a pickup in institutional demand.
- •Bitcoin set a record of $126,080 in October before the largest liquidation event in crypto history, yet analysts note the asset has become less volatile and has experienced its shallowest bear market to date.
Bitcoin climbed past $81,000 on Monday for the first time since January before easing back, a move that has market observers asking whether the debasement trade is back.
The largest cryptocurrency was recently trading at $79,098 on Tuesday morning in New York after hitting $81,160 the evening before. Over a 24-hour period, the coin sits essentially unmoved, but zooming out over seven days it has jumped by 23%.
Bitcoin has benefited from news that the Treasury would at least double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations. The announcement last week hurt the dollar, while non-yielding assets have benefited. The Treasury began conducting regular buybacks of this kind in 2024 to shore up liquidity in the U.S. government bond market, so a larger program means still more liquidity in the financial system.
JUST IN: $80,834 Bitcoin! pic.twitter.com/1Ouoi92RmA
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That has some asking whether 2025's much-talked-about debasement trade is back. The strategy — in which investors buy an asset as a way to hedge against a currency losing value — has in the past benefited Bitcoin along with precious metals, because such assets cannot be endlessly printed. Gold, the classic hard-asset hedge, set a run of record highs during the trade's 2025 heyday, the clearest expression of the theme at the time.
Analysts frequently touted the trade last year, but following Bitcoin's decline since October, it became less discussed as traders turned their attention to stocks related to artificial intelligence.
Still, with the dollar becoming increasingly weaker, Bitcoin could be attracting longer-term and "smart money" investors, market observers have said.
U.S. investors last week piled back into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds; the investment vehicles had their best week since October, with nearly $2 billion in inflows. The spot Bitcoin ETFs, launched in January 2024, have since become one of the main routes for U.S. investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin's price, making their weekly flows a closely followed gauge of institutional demand.
Bitcoin notched a new record of $126,080 in October before the biggest liquidation event in crypto history hurt its price. It continued to dip in 2026 on negative macroeconomic headwinds and fears that the Federal Reserve would not lower interest rates.
Even so, the cryptocurrency has become increasingly less volatile and so far has suffered its shallowest bear market, according to analysts.
This article was written by Mathew Di Salvo and first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.
