The Kansas City Fed’s Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium opened on Aug. 27 and runs through Aug. 29 under the theme “Financial Innovation: Implications for Payments and Policy.” New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh is scheduled to deliver his first Jackson Hole keynote on Friday at 10 a.m. EDT, with markets already pricing about a one-in-three chance of a September rate hike heading into the speech. The full speaker list was still under wraps until 8 p.m. EDT on Aug. 27.
The Fed’s agenda explicitly lists crypto and stablecoins alongside instant payments and other digital payment systems, and links the discussion to the future of currency, banking, monetary policy implementation, and global financial integration. At the nearby Jackson Lake Lodge, SALT and Kraken are expected to fill a ballroom with token businesses, while the Federal Reserve’s official program makes payment technology the organizing idea. This follows the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium held Aug. 17–20 at the Four Seasons, where roughly 500 guests heard from Galaxy’s Michael Novogratz, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi, Stellar CEO Denelle Dixon, and U.S. lawmakers Cynthia Lummis and Tim Scott.
Bitcoin was trading at $80,526, up 1.9% on the day, after opening at $79,023 and touching an intraday high of $80,808. It remains about 2.5% below the $82,538 level that capped a previous breakout, and Tuesday’s rejection near $81,265 coincided with the 50-week moving average near $81,085. The surge has been almost entirely macro-driven: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s announcement of expanded Treasury bond buybacks pushed yields and the dollar lower, reviving the “debasement trade” and producing Bitcoin’s second-strongest weekly performance since early 2021, with a 23.6% gain from around $62,000 to nearly $80,000.
Momentum is stretched, however. The Relative Strength Index sits at 82.4, well into overbought territory, while the broader trend remains structurally strong above the 50-day and 200-day averages. The White House has added another policy tailwind by teasing possible further U.S. Bitcoin accumulation, but technicals argue for a pause before any clean push through resistance.
Stablecoins are a major bridge between the crypto gathering and the central-bank retreat. The Bank for International Settlements’ 2026 review put stablecoin capitalization at about $320 billion at the end of May and gross transaction value at roughly $28 trillion during 2025. The BIS also found that 99.4% of fiat-backed stablecoins were pegged to the U.S. dollar. President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law in July 2025, and regulators are now defining reserve, redemption, and customer-identification rules. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said on Aug. 19 that it expects a final implementation rule by November and that 23 of 40 pending de novo charter applications involve digital-asset activity. The Fed’s June conference on the dollar’s international role similarly described stablecoins as already working their way into Treasury markets, foreign exchange, and remittances.
Macro inputs are also in play. July PCE inflation showed headline and core prices rising 0.2% for the month, with annual rates at 3.7% and 3.3%, respectively, while real consumer spending was nearly flat. Treasury has said it will at least double long-end buyback caps from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation beginning in September. Any dovish signal from Warsh—or any explicit comfort with looser policy and payments innovation—could reinforce the falling-yield, weaker-dollar environment that has powered Bitcoin’s latest advance.
