Bitcoin rally outpaces altcoins as dominance nears yearly high

Bitcoin rose roughly 24% over the past week to near $79,000. The rally put Bitcoin on pace for its best run since 2023. The CoinMarketCap Altcoin Season Index stood at 46. The index measures how many of the top 100 coins outperformed Bitcoin over 90 days. A reading above 75 signals altcoin season. Ethereum gained about 30% over the same week to above $2,500. Total3 excludes Bitcoin and Ethereum and stood around $753 billion. Total3 was down for the week after an early rally. Total2 tracks the full altcoin market. Total2 rose more than 24% between August 19 and 22 and moved back above $1 trillion. Total2 later traded near $1.05 trillion and fell over the past two days. Bitcoin dominance rose to around 61% this week before correcting to about 59%. The level was near its highest point of the year. The U.S. Treasury said last Wednesday that it would double its long-bond buybacks from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation starting September 9. The buybacks involve purchases of the government's own debt. The Treasury plan weakened the dollar and pushed investors toward bitcoin as an inflation hedge. President Donald Trump met crypto executives at the White House two days later. Trump urged Congress to pass the Clarity Act. The bill would establish which U.S. regulator oversees different crypto assets. Bitcoin's move above $70,000 forced traders with short positions to buy back the asset at a loss. Lacie Zhang, a Bitget Wallet research analyst, estimated that more than $4 billion in crypto shorts were liquidated over two to three days. A sustained move above $80,000 could open a path toward $82,000 to $87,000. The main pullback zone was identified at $75,000 to $76,000. The Senate is scheduled to take up the Clarity Act again in mid-September.