Bitcoin Stalls at $78,000 as Macro Conditions Override Demand

Bitcoin's August rally has stalled at around $78,000, after briefly breaking through $81,000 and printing its strongest weekly candle in over three years. The Fed Chair's speech at Jackson Hole late last month, warning that inflation is not beaten, pushed rate hike expectations higher and cut short the rally. Bitcoin dropped 3.3% to $77,678 on August 29.

Despite the stall, there are signs of improving demand for Bitcoin, with US spot ETFs pulling in a combined $2.6 billion in a single week, their best result since October 2025. However, this is still not enough to overcome macro conditions and institutional investors' profit-taking. The balance sheet of Strategy, the largest corporate holder in the market, has been cleaned up after selling 6,916 BTC for around $429 million between June 29 and August 23.

Strategy's recent purchase of 4,603 BTC for $369.7 million at an average price of $80,318 per coin is seen as a positive sign by analysts, indicating that the company considers its balance sheet strong enough to go back on offense. However, it remains to be seen whether this will lead to a breakout.

Meanwhile, privacy coins such as Zcash and Monero are outperforming the rest of the market, with ZEC hitting an eight-year high of $888 in August and gaining over 60% against Bitcoin's 20%. This is seen as a sign that capital is rotating into privacy assets. Analysts note that this rally has been leveraged and violent in both directions.