Gold and silver just posted their strongest week of 2026. Bitcoin (BTC) sat it out.

Gold climbed roughly 7% on the week. Silver did about twice as well. Bitcoin managed 0.7% in a day.

The Gold and Silver Rally Left Bitcoin Behind

Gold headed for its best week since January, Reuters reported. Spot gold was up about 6% on the week by Friday afternoon in London, then pushed higher into the New York session.

By late Friday, gold traded near $4,323 an ounce and silver near $64. Both marked multi-week highs.

Bitcoin was the laggard. It gained 0.7% over 24 hours, leaving Bitcoin near $65,000 with a market value around $1.31 trillion.

Research account Bull Theory put the combined gain for the two metals at roughly $2.7 trillion. That estimate values all the gold and silver ever mined. Treat it as rough scale, not a hard number.

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The check is straightforward. The World Gold Council counts 219,891 tonnes of gold above ground at the end of 2025. At $4,323 an ounce, that is worth about $30 trillion. A 7% week therefore adds close to $2 trillion in gold alone.

Japan’s Yen Buying Squeezed the Carry Trade

Japan and the United States bought yen together on July 31. It was their first joint purchase of the currency since 1998.

The scale has changed beyond recognition. New York Fed records show Washington spent $833 million on June 17, 1998, split evenly between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. Market estimates put this week’s two-day operation as high as $85 billion.

Bank of Japan flow data pointed to roughly $59 billion on the first session alone. Japan’s Ministry of Finance confirms the official total on Aug. 31.

Washington also sold euros instead of dollars to fund its share. The European Central Bank found out afterwards.

It worked, at least briefly. The yen had touched 163.99 per dollar, its weakest since 1986. It then firmed to 155.23, a gain of more than 5%.

“We will not hesitate to participate in further joint intervention,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signalled there may be more.

Why a Stronger Yen Usually Hurts Crypto

The link runs through borrowing. For years, traders borrowed yen cheaply because Japanese rates sat near zero. They then bought higher-returning assets elsewhere, including Bitcoin. That trade is called the carry trade.

A stronger yen makes those loans more expensive to repay. Traders sell assets to cover them. That is the theory, and it has form.

August 2024 is the case study. The BIS found that a Bank of Japan hike and weak US jobs data triggered a violent unwind. On Aug. 5 that year, Japan’s TOPIX fell 12% in a single day. The S&P 500 dropped 3%. Wall Street’s fear gauge spiked above 60.

The BIS also sized the trade. Bank loans outside Japan reached ¥40 trillion, near $250 billion, by March 2024. Broader cross-border claims topped $500 billion.

So the yen just strengthened more than 5% in two sessions, and Bitcoin barely flinched. That is the puzzle. BeInCrypto has previously tracked how Bitcoin fell after Japan’s past rate hikes, which makes the calm response more striking.

One explanation comes from Apollo Global Management. It says the yen carry trade rule that tied the currency to interest rate gaps has broken down. If that link is weaker, the squeeze bites less.

Cheaper Oil and a Fed Hold Favored Metals

The simpler answer may be that metals had their own catalysts.

Brent crude fell more than 10% on the week after the United States and Iran agreed a two-week ceasefire. Cheaper energy cooled inflation worries.

Traders responded by cutting the odds of a September US rate increase to 55%, down from 63% a week earlier, according to Reuters. The Fed had already held rates at 3.50% to 3.75% on July 29. That Fed rate hold split the committee 9 to 3.

Lower rate expectations tend to help gold, which pays no interest. Metals captured that shift. Crypto did not.

Two dates now matter. US jobs data lands first. The Bank of Japan then meets in September. It held at 1% in July, and Governor Kazuo Ueda warned that inflation risks point upward.

Source: BeInCrypto