Gold and bitcoin prices rose quickly this week after a surprise announcement from the US Treasury on 19 August. The Treasury said it would double the amount of long-term US government bonds it buys back, starting on 9 September. This led to large changes in financial markets and made the US dollar weaker.

The main reason for this move was that many investors believed US officials were worried about higher long-term borrowing costs. The United States now has more than $40 trillion in federal debt, and interest payments are very high. This made traders think that the US government was trying to keep borrowing costs under control.

Because of these worries, investors put more money into gold and bitcoin. A fund for gold received $1.3 billion in one day, and a bitcoin fund rose more than 22% in a week.