Crypto News Today: Bitcoin Below $80,000, Solana Leads Altcoins

Quick Take:

• In crypto news today, the market is seeing one of its strongest August runs in years, even as Bitcoin fell below $80,000 on Friday, 28 August 2026.
• Earlier this week, Solana led the altcoins, jumping 6.89% to $109.21 after Charles Schwab said it plans to add SOL, Avalanche and Chainlink to its crypto platform.
• Ethereum was the laggard on the day at about $2,425, despite clocking gains after last week's short squeeze.
• The rally's fuel: the US Treasury's expanded bond buybacks, Nvidia earnings report, and eight straight days of spot Bitcoin ETF inflows worth $2.8 billion.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded at $77,560 on 29 August 2026, after settling at $80,258 on Thursday, a 1.56% daily gain, according to recent price data. Solana (SOL) stole the session, and the reason was not a meme or a rumor. It was something much more concrete.

The crypto market today is really three stories running at once: a Bitcoin rally consolidating above a big round number, an altcoin rotation that keeps broadening, and tonnes of institutional money arriving through regulated products. Here is each one, with the numbers:

Why did Bitcoin Price Gain Ground?

Earlier this week, Bitcoin reached above $80,000 as fresh money arrived through ETFs while the macro backdrop turned supportive. US spot Bitcoin ETFs have drawn $2.8 billion across eight consecutive trading sessions, according to data from Farside Investors, with BlackRock's IBIT accounting for $2.02 billion of that run, roughly 72% of the total.

The rally started with the bond market. The US Treasury's expanded buyback program supported liquidity in government debt, and risk assets responded.

Then came the squeeze: more than $4 billion in crypto short positions were wiped out as the move accelerated, according to liquidation data from CoinGlass. Nvidia's earnings beat on Wednesday evening added the final push, lifting US stocks on Thursday and pulling crypto up with them.

One caution needs to be mentioned: daily ETF inflows have cooled from a peak of $606 million on 20 August to $232 million by Wednesday, so the streak is intact. However, as buying pressure seems to be thinning, a slight 1.8% daily drop in BTC price was observed.

What Sent Solana Price Up?

Solana jumped 6.89% to $109.21 on Thursday after Charles Schwab said it plans to add Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink to Schwab Crypto in the coming months. For a firm of Schwab's size, that is distribution, not commentary, and traders priced it that way.

The Schwab news landed on top of two existing tailwinds. US spot Solana ETFs have pulled in a record $1.22 billion in cumulative net inflows after their biggest single-day inflow since December, as per data from SoSoValue. In addition, validators are voting on proposals that could cut SOL issuance and sharply raise daily burns, a supply story we covered in detail in our Solana burn proposals piece.

Worth remembering: SOL traded near $96 as recently as Wednesday. A 13% move in two sessions comes with overheated leverage, and earlier in the rally a rejection above $100 triggered $17.5 million in long liquidations in a single day.

Why Is Ethereum Price Lagging?

Ethereum (ETH) price saw a price drop, seemed to almost follow Bitcoin’s price drop. ETH price dropped by around 3% to about $2,439 on Thursday, making it the weakest of the majors on the day.

The context makes the number less bearish than it looks: ETH was last week's leader, at one point rising nearly 19% in 24 hours during the short squeeze, and it remains up roughly 18% over the past seven days, according to recent market data.

In simple terms, Ethereum already had its violent repricing. Thursday looked like rotation, with capital moving from the coin that just ran into the coins that had not.

Top Movers: Who Led and Who Lagged

The breadth matters as much as any single mover. Altcoins recently hit 65% of trading volume on Binance, a two-year high, according to data from CryptoQuant, a shift we broke down in our altcoin dominance analysis.

Today's tape is consistent with that: the leaders were not Bitcoin. Zcash extended its post-ETF run, XRP held its bid after a 44% rally earlier in the month, and even mid-caps like Stacks and NEAR posted double-digit or high single-digit gains on their own catalysts. When the whole board moves, and Bitcoin sits mid-table, the market is telling you where the risk appetite lives.

What to Watch Next

Three things decide whether this run extends into September. First, the ETF flow streak: if daily inflows keep shrinking from that $606 million peak, the rally loses its steadiest bid. Second, Solana's supply votes: approval of the issuance cuts would hand SOL a fundamental story beyond the Schwab headline.

Third, the macro calendar: the Treasury buyback effect and the Fed's September meeting will set the liquidity backdrop that started this whole move. A market that rallied on liquidity can fade on it just as quickly, so the honest posture here is constructive, not euphoric.