Your day-ahead look for Aug. 17, 2026
By Omkar Godbole|Edited by Sheldon Reback44 min ago3 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on Strategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor (CoinDesk)SummaryShowThis is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter 'Daybook.' Sign up here, if you haven't already.
Bitcoin BTC$63,562.86 remains within a tight trading range, and two of its largest corporate advocates are steadfast in their beliefs.
Simon Gerovich, CEO of Metaplanet, along with Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy, both major holders of the cryptocurrency, emphasize that the fixed supply of 21 million BTC outweighs the implications of ongoing monetary expansion, regardless of current price movements.
On Sunday, Gerovich pointed out that the global M2 money supply has surged to an unprecedented high of over $100 trillion, which he sees as a positive long-term indicator for Bitcoin's prospects.
“Bitcoin's price has decoupled from liquidity over the past year. But supply schedules don't change,” Gerovich remarked. “21 million will always be 21 million. When the money supply expands indefinitely, you hold the asset that cannot. That’s why we choose hard money.”
Despite the M2 money supply increasing, Bitcoin's value has nearly halved to $63,500 over the past year. This trend aligns with historical market patterns where Bitcoin's price has temporarily diverged from rising macroeconomic liquidity during bearish phases.
Saylor echoed a similar sentiment but framed it differently, asserting that grasping Bitcoin necessitates an understanding of the nature of money itself.
“Money is energy. Bitcoin is digital monetary energy,” he articulated, referencing his recent essay that posits money as a form of stored economic energy generated by human effort, with Bitcoin being its most efficient digital representation due to its unalterable supply.
Strategy is the largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder with 840,447 BTC, valued at $53 billion. Metaplanet, listed in Tokyo, holds 43,000 BTC, worth approximately $2.7 billion, placing it in third according to data from Bitcoin Treasuries.
Jurrier Timmer, Fidelity's global macro director, anticipates that Bitcoin will align with the money supply if gold begins to rise again.
“Based on my Gold & Liquidity regression between global M2 and gold, gold is valued at around $5k. I believe that if gold begins to gain momentum, it will also lift Bitcoin and Ethereum,” Timmer commented on X.
Stay alert!
Read more: For analysis of today's activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today. For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk's "Crypto Week Ahead."
What’s trending
- Strait of Hormuz shipping grinds to a halt ahead of U.S.-Iran ceasefire expiry (CNBC): Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz slowed to a halt over the weekend ahead of the expiry date of the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran on Monday, with no official negotiations or deal in sight.
- Bitpanda fined 70,000 euros in Austria’s first published MiCA enforcement case (CoinDesk): Austria’s Financial Market Authority fined Bitpanda GmbH 70,000 euros ($81,150) for breaches of the EU’s MiCA regulation in the regulator’s first penalty over the rules.
- The bitcoin futures market looks like a crowded club with a tiny exit – and it could cause pain (CoinDesk): The bitcoin futures market is increasingly looking like a crowded public club with a tiny exit door, setting the stage for a potential liquidity trap and wild price swings. The open interest in futures stands at $48 billion, and the 24-hour trading volume tallies $25 billion.
- Shares steady, dollar slips as markets pare Fed rate risks (Reuters): Global shares edged higher and the dollar fell to its lowest level since June after a run of soft U.S. economic data, including an unexpected drop in retail sales, saw markets reduce bets for an imminent rate hike from the Federal Reserve.
Today’s signal
Golden cross happening on the ether-bitcoin ratio's daily chart. (TradingView)The chart shows daily swings in the ether-bitcoin ratio in candlestick format with key simple moving averages (SMA) overlaid.
The 50-day SMA is crossing above the 200-day SMA to confirm the so-called “golden crossover.”
This pattern is widely seen as a marker of long-term uptrend, which is a sign that ether could continue to outperform its larger peer.
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By CoinDesk ResearchJun 30, 2026Commissioned byGenZcashZcash’s Tachyon upgrade aims to scale shielded payments, improve quantum readiness, and test whether its funding, security, and governance can hold.
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