Bitcoin Near $80K: Why Crypto Rallied, LatAm Read

Bitcoin closed at US$78,964 on Monday, August 24, up 1.56%, just shy of the US$80,000 mark that had acted as resistance throughout the session. The rally was driven by a turn in the US bond market, with expanded Treasury buybacks weakening the dollar and reigniting the "debasement trade" - a strategy where investors buy Bitcoin and gold as protection against the erosion of purchasing power.

Liquidations totaled around US$439 million, an even split between longs and shorts, representing a significant cooling from the previous day's US$2.99 billion short squeeze. Ethereum rose 0.73% to US$2,482, while Solana climbed 3.27% to US$98.56. XRP fell 2.83% to US$1.479, bucking the broader market trend. The technical outlook is mixed, with Bitcoin's gains potentially pulling Ethereum and Solana higher, while XRP's recovery hinges on regulatory developments.

For Latin America, the Bitcoin rally reflects the region's continued reliance on stablecoins for everyday transactions and remittances. In Brazil, 98% of crypto purchases in Q1 2026 were through dollar-linked tokens, accounting for US$6.9 billion in quarterly volume. Similarly, in Argentina, more than 70% of purchases on Bitso were denominated in stablecoins, a response to the volatile peso.

El Salvador's Bitcoin experiment remains modest, accounting for just 0.7% of total remittance flows. The broader implications are the expansion of dollar-linked and tokenized assets for savings and payments, with exchange platforms like Gemini and Coinbase integrating crypto products into their offerings. The immediate focus is whether Bitcoin can break above US$80,000 on a closing basis, which would likely lift other cryptocurrencies, while XRP's fate is tied to regulatory news and partnerships.