The crypto market gained 22% over the week ending August 22-23, its strongest weekly performance in over two years, even as a flash crash wiped out $108 billion in minutes and triggered roughly $5 billion in liquidations. Bitcoin closed near $77,000-$78,000, XRP jumped as much as 51%, and Ethereum rose about 27%.
Bitcoin closed the week near $77,000-$78,000, its best weekly gain since March 2024, after briefly touching intraday highs around $79,000-$80,000. The broader market moved with it, and in some cases well past it.
Treasury liquidity and Clarity Act optimism fuel the rally
Two catalysts did most of the work. A Treasury buyback announcement gave markets a liquidity signal they were clearly hungry for. Separately, optimism around the Clarity Act, the digital-asset regulatory framework moving through Washington, lit a fire under a market that had been waiting on policy direction for months.
Short sellers paid the price, too, as a wave of short-covering amplified the move while traders who had bet against the market scrambled to close positions into rising prices.
XRP and Ethereum outrun Bitcoin
Altcoins responded even more sharply than Bitcoin. XRP gained between 46% and 51% on the week. Ethereum rose approximately 27%, outperforming Bitcoin in percentage terms and signaling that the rally had genuine breadth rather than being a Bitcoin-only story.
A $108 billion flash crash tests leveraged longs
On August 22, with the weekly gain already looking impressive, the market hit a wall. Total crypto market cap shed roughly $108 billion within minutes.
Over $500 million in long positions were liquidated in the crash's first hour. That figure climbed to approximately $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion over the following 24 hours, and total liquidations across the episode approached $5 billion.
For traders, the crash and its liquidations serve as a live stress test of position sizing. The $5 billion in liquidations were concentrated in leveraged long positions, meaning traders who were right about the market's direction but too aggressive with their size got washed out before the recovery.
XRP's 46-51% move is worth noting for what it signals about altcoin appetite. When traders put that kind of capital into an asset with XRP's history of regulatory entanglement, it reflects genuine confidence in a shifting policy environment.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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