Bitcoin Price Retreats After Warsh’s Hawkish Jackson Hole Keynote

Bitcoin Retreats From $81,455 as August Gains Hold Firm

As of today, Aug. 29, 2026, at 8:30 a.m., bitcoin’s price stands at around $77,588 to $77,984 per unit. While the leading crypto asset is down around 2-2.5% over the last 24 hours, since August 15, $BTC has seen its price rise by 23.2% against the U.S. dollar. Bitcoin’s initial move upward was pushed by the Treasury’s mid-August announcement concerning the expansion of bond buybacks.

During that same week, U.S. President Donald Trump met with a slew of cryptocurrency industry executives and made several positive comments about the crypto sector. For instance, he discussed bringing Hyperliquid to the U.S., and he was also open to the idea of acquiring sizable amounts of $BTC after listening to advice from members of his administration.

The combination of these two headlines propelled spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) demand, which saw nine straight days of inflows. That positive streak ended Friday, with the first day of outflows recorded by spot bitcoin ETFs as data shows a $202 million exit.

Sticky Inflation and Positive Crypto Headlines Collide

A few things followed that dampened the price by the end of the week. The first was sticky inflation, as the U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index logged a rise in July. But bitcoin managed to shrug off that headline and bounced back from a slight dip to the $81,455 weekly high. Positive news like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed custody rules rewrite draft and Charles Schwab expanding its digital asset lineup helped.

Warsh’s Hawkish Jackson Hole Debut Jolts Markets and Bitcoin’s Price

But then came the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium, where Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh gave his first speech at the annual event. Warsh spoke at 10 a.m. EDT on Friday, and he focused directly on the event’s theme, “Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy.” The Warsh keynote was considered hawkish, and he stressed that the U.S. central bank has “work to do.” He stressed that specific financial conditions have been difficult and that forward guidance had “overstayed its welcome.”

The odds for a rate hike immediately jumped from 35% to the mid-50s. Treasury yields went up, and precious metals like gold logged modest declines. Before the Warsh keynote, bitcoin’s price was coasting along rangebound at around $79,500 per unit. After the Warsh speech, bitcoin briefly traded under $77,000 before buyers absorbed the intraday low. This was the same day that spot bitcoin ETFs went from a green streak to a red day. Despite the consecutive days of inflows cracking, August remains a strong inflow month with roughly $3.1–$3.3 billion pulled in.

Bitcoin Tests $77,000 Support as Technicals Flash Overheating

As of this weekend, bitcoin’s price resistance stands at $79,500–$80,300 (lost on the speech), and the wall grows larger at higher prices. Support currently holds around the $76,800 to $77,000 zone for now, and a low $28.731 billion trading volume over the last 24 hours. Technicals show that momentum was already stretched before the Fed Chair’s keynote, and today the daily relative strength index (RSI) prints a 70. The Stochastic is a bit more elevated at 85, showing signs of an overbought territory.

On the other hand, while RSI is neutral and Stochastic shows some overheating, the moving average convergence divergence (MACD), however, remains in a positive territory. Overall, between oscillators and moving averages, and despite the latest drawdown, bullish momentum seems to be still intact. At least for now.