Bitcoin hits $81K as yen strengthens and DXY falls
Bitcoin (BTC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
Cointelegraph.com reports that Bitcoin rallied 5% during US trading hours to reclaim $80,000, reaching a high of $81,000. This price action coincided with a weakening US dollar, driven by a suspected Bank of Japan currency intervention that strengthened the yen. The USD/JPY pair dropped from 158.5 to 155.4, pushing the DXY index down to 99, a move historically positive for Bitcoin.
Shares of Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) rose 8.6% on Wednesday, though the stock remains down roughly 10% year-to-date. The intervention revived fears of a carry-trade unwind, especially with the prospect of a BOJ rate hike later this month. Polymarket probabilities for a BOJ rate hold dropped from 12% to 1%, cementing a 98% market-implied probability of a 25-basis-point hike at the Sept. 18 meeting.
Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom, viewed the intervention as liquidity-positive, citing the FIMA repo facility. He noted that while no funds have been drawn yet, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised the prospect of its use in late July. The Macro Paper commented on X that the 2.5% drop in USD/JPY indicates major intervention, similar to the events of Q3 2024.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for BTC, measured when this story was written up on 3 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Bitcoin is currently trading at $77,340.01, showing a 1-hour buy ratio of 48.6% and a 4-hour buy ratio of 48.7%. These short-term figures are slightly below the 24-hour buy ratio of 50.9%, suggesting that immediate buying pressure is fading relative to the daily average. The Volume Delta for the last hour is -$1,327,661, and for the last four hours, it is -$8,257,093, indicating net selling in the short term. However, the 24-hour Volume Delta remains positive at +$17,213,475, with a Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) of +$108,399,514. This means that over the full day, buyers have been more aggressive than sellers, despite the recent shift toward net selling in the last few hours.
The latest daily buy ratio of 48.4% sits at the 40th percentile of the last 281 days, against a median of 49.2% - ordinary for this coin.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for BTC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the average buy ratio was 49.2%, making today’s 24-hour ratio of 50.9% an unusual day with 1.6 percentage points more buying than usual. Spot volume was 0.93x the average, indicating slightly lower trading activity than typical. The coin experienced a price change of -2.1% over the eight-day period, with a total Volume Delta of -$130,511,636. While today shows a net positive delta, the weekly trend remains negative, with only 3 of 7 days showing net buying. This suggests that despite the recent rally, the broader weekly flow has been dominated by sellers.