simply ended what’s traditionally the most important cryptocurrency’s third-worst week of the yr with a greater-than-average drop of 5%. Week 38 successfully closes out the third quarter, which is up about 1%, in addition to September, which has managed to carry flat.
Whereas the figures are in keeping with the interval’s historic repute as one of many weakest seasons of the yr, a couple of catalysts might need contributed to the underperformance.
On Friday, greater than $17 billion in choices expired, with the max ache worth — the strike worth at which choice holders lose essentially the most cash and choices writers revenue essentially the most — sitting at $110,000, which acted as a gravitational heart for the spot worth.
A key technical issue stays the short-term holder value foundation at $110,775, which displays the typical on-chain acquisition worth for cash that moved previously six months.
Bitcoin examined this degree in August, and in bull markets, it sometimes strikes towards this line a number of instances. This yr, it broke considerably under that degree solely as soon as: through the tariff tantrum in April, when it dropped to as little as $74,500.
Zooming out, you will need to assess whether or not bitcoin stays in an uptrend characterised by larger highs and better lows to get an concept of whether or not the rally is sustainable.
Analyst Caleb Franzen highlights that bitcoin has slipped under its 100-day exponential transferring common (EMA), with the 200-day EMA sitting at $106,186. The earlier vital low was round $107,252 on Sept. 1, and for the broader development to stay intact, bitcoin might want to maintain above that degree.,
Macro Backdrop
The U.S. economic system grew at an annualized tempo of three.8% within the second quarter, nicely above the three.3% estimate and the strongest efficiency because the second quarter of 2023. Preliminary jobless claims dropped by 14,000 to 218,000, coming in under expectations and marking the bottom degree since mid-July. Whereas spending knowledge got here in step with the market’s expectation. The US core PCE worth index, the Federal Reserve’s most well-liked measure of underlying inflation that excludes meals and power, rose 0.2% in August 2025 from the prior month.
The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries bounced off the 4% assist, and is now buying and selling close to 4.2%. The greenback index (DXY) continues to hover round long-term assist at 98. In the meantime, metals are main the motion, with silver at round $45 approaching an all-time excessive at ranges final seen in 1980 and 2011. U.S. equities, within the meantime, are simply shy of their data.
Bitcoin stays the outlier at greater than 10% under its peak.
Bitcoin-Uncovered Equities
Bitcoin treasury firms proceed to face extreme multiple-to-net-asset-value (mNAV) compression. Technique (MSTR) is barely optimistic year-to-date. At one level, it dipped under $300, a unfavorable return for 2025.
The ratio between Technique and BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Belief ETF (IBIT) stands at 4.8, the bottom since October 2024, which exhibits simply how a lot the most important bitcoin treasury firm has underperformed bitcoin over the previous 12 months.
Technique’s enterprise mNAV is at the moment 1.44 (as of Friday). Enterprise worth right here accounts for all fundamental shares excellent, complete notional debt and complete notional worth of perpetual most well-liked inventory minus the corporate’s money steadiness.
The silver lining for MSTR is that three of the 4 perpetual most well-liked shares, STRK, STRC and STRF, are all sporting optimistic lifetime returns as Govt Chairman Michael Saylor appears to purchase extra BTC via these autos.
A rising problem for MSTR is the dearth of volatility in bitcoin. The cryptocurrency’s Implied volatility — a measure of the market’s expectation of future worth fluctuations — has dropped under 40, the bottom in years.
This issues as a result of Saylor has typically framed MSTR as a volatility play on bitcoin. For comparability, MSTR’s implied volatility is at 68. Its annualized commonplace deviation of each day log returns over the previous yr was 89%, whereas during the last 30 days it has fallen to 49%.
For equities, larger volatility typically attracts speculators, generates buying and selling alternatives and attracts investor consideration, so the decline is probably going performing as a headwind.
Meantime, the fifth-largest bitcoin treasury firm, Metaplanet (3350), holds 25,555 BTC and nonetheless has roughly $500 million left to deploy from its worldwide providing. Regardless of this, its share worth continues to wrestle at 517 yen ($3.45), greater than 70% under its all-time excessive.
Metaplanet’s mNAV has dropped to 1.12, down sharply from 8.44 in June. Its market capitalization now stands at $3.94 billion in comparison with a bitcoin NAV of $2.9 billion, with a median BTC acquisition value of $106,065.