Bitcoin surged almost 22% last week, its strongest weekly performance since March 2024.

It traded above $77,000 Friday and briefly approached $80,000. This morning, it’s still hovering near those levels.

The obvious temptation is to chalk this up to another round of crypto mania.

There’s some of that. President Trump has been pushing Congress for friendlier crypto legislation. A short squeeze added fuel to the rally.

But the bigger catalyst came from somewhere unexpected: the U.S. Treasury.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced plans to at least double the amount of long-term Treasury debt the government can buy back at a time, from $2 billion to at least $4 billion.

The announcement came as long-term Treasury yields were surging and the national debt crossed $40 trillion for the first time.

That combination matters.

Investors are increasingly worried that Washington’s enormous debt load will make it harder to tolerate high interest rates. Buying back long-term bonds can help relieve pressure in the Treasury market. But it doesn’t solve the underlying problem.

Washington still spends more than it collects. It still has to borrow the difference.

That helps explain why gold and Bitcoin rallied together last week. Both can serve as alternatives to dollar-denominated financial assets when investors worry about deficits, debt and currency debasement.

Bitcoin is still volatile. It can fall just as violently as it rises. But this rally looks like more than another speculative sugar rush.

It’s also a vote on Washington’s fiscal credibility.

And right now, that vote isn’t especially flattering.

Your Rundown for Monday, August 24, 2026...

Canada Fires Back

Meanwhile, America’s trade tussle with Canada just got considerably more expensive.

Negotiations collapsed Friday after Canada rejected new U.S. demands. The U.S. then imposed 50% tariffs on roughly C$28 billion worth of Canadian goods.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by promising dollar-for-dollar retaliation, with new tariffs scheduled to take effect Sept. 8.

So who pays?

A tariff is collected from the importer. That means American companies importing affected Canadian products face a 50% tax at the border. Some companies will absorb part of that cost. Others will find new suppliers.

And some — most? — will pass it along to customers.

That creates obvious upward pressure on prices for affected goods.

But there’s an important distinction between higher prices and inflation.

Tariffs can raise prices. But raising the price of certain goods isn’t the same thing as creating sustained inflation across the economy.

If Americans have to spend more on tariff-hit products, they have less to spend elsewhere. That tends to shift prices around rather than send all prices relentlessly higher.

But U.S. inflation is already running persistently above the Fed’s 2% target; consumer prices rose 3.4% over the 12 months through July.

Canada has its own problem. Its CPI rose 3.0% year over year in July, and Carney openly acknowledged that retaliatory tariffs will raise costs and reduce choices for Canadians.

In other words, nobody gets out of a trade war unscathed.

Tariffs may protect favored industries or serve larger strategic goals. But the bill eventually lands somewhere.

For American consumers, Canadian consumers or businesses caught in the middle, that somewhere is usually uncomfortably close to home.

Market Rundown for Monday, August 24, 2026

S&P 500 futures are down 0.15% to 7,680.

Oil is down 1.80% to $85.50 for a barrel of West Texas crude.

Gold’s up 0.75% to $4,715.20 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s up 1.55% to $78,500.