Bitcoin traded just below $78,000 early Monday as the yen broke through 160 per dollar and rate-hike bets lifted the greenback, pressuring crypto broadly. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the yen's recent moves "pretty well contained" and said they did not warrant a joint US-Japan intervention. Monday's close will show whether bitcoin ETFs' recent inflow run survived the shift in rate expectations.
Bitcoin traded just below $78,000 in Asian morning hours Monday, down under 1% over 24 hours and up about 1% on the week. Solana and dogecoin led the decliners at roughly 3% each, with hyperliquid and XRP close behind, while ether, BNB, zcash and tron all sat within 2% of flat.
The weekly picture split sharply: solana rose about 8% while dogecoin fell roughly 10%.
Yen breaches 160 per dollar
The yen breached 160 per dollar and traded near that level in Tokyo on Monday. Strategists see intervention triggers starting as close as 161, then in the 162 to 163 zone, though the currency has already unwound more than half the gains from a record July operation in which the US joined Japan for the first coordinated yen buying since 1998.
Fed rate-hike bets and the August ETF tally
Friday's broad dollar advance came on expectations for higher US rates after Warsh spoke at Jackson Hole. Bond investors are now pricing a Fed positioned to hike. That repricing is what pulled institutional money out of bitcoin ETFs across May and June. Monday is the final trading session of August, and the month's closing ETF total will show whether the eight-day inflow run survived the shift in rate expectations.
Bessent: yen moves "pretty well contained"
According to CoinDesk, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the yen's recent moves were "pretty well contained" and did not warrant a joint US-Japan intervention like last month. On Friday, Bessent warned that a disorderly yen market could feed through to higher US interest rates, since the yen has long funded investments in US stocks and Treasury notes. A volatile yen could therefore trigger an upswing in bond yields, causing financial tightening that could also affect bitcoin.
Where bitcoin's price needs to hold
Separately, investingLive's chart analysis puts bitcoin's reversal test at 77,165, with a sustained break below that level seen as invalidating the recovery attempt. Bulls would need acceptance above 78,340 to confirm the reversal, according to the analysis. A move through 79,730-79,920 would provide stronger structural confirmation.
Sources: CoinDesk, investingLive
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