Gold rose to a three-month high, and bitcoin also briefly topped $80,000.

On Aug. 25, blockchain outlet Decrypt reported that a weaker dollar and falling long-term U.S. Treasury yields drove both assets higher.

Spot gold climbed to $4,696.18 an ounce, its highest level since May 14. It later gave up part of the gains, but kept its upward trend since early August. Bitcoin also jumped to $80,000 for the first time since mid-May, and is now trading in the $78,000 range after giving back some gains.

Markets are focusing on the fact that the dollar and long-term yields fell together after the U.S. Treasury announced last week that it would expand bond purchases. The World Gold Council said in a recent report that gold prices jumped 3 percent after the announcement. Gold is typically seen as a preferred asset when economic and geopolitical uncertainty rises, and bitcoin is increasingly traded as an alternative to government-issued currencies.

Fund flows also supported gold's rise. The World Gold Council (WGC) said spot gold exchange-traded funds recorded net inflows of $3.0 billion in July. That marked a return to net inflows after two straight months of outflows. Holdings rose 23 tonnes to 4,068 tonnes, and assets under management increased 1 percent to $530.0 billion.

The WGC also said concerns about a U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike in September have eased. It said recent economic data reduced the likelihood of further tightening and supported gold's recovery since early this month. It also said commodity trading advisor (CTA) positions in the U.S. Treasury futures market remain heavily skewed to net shorts, and that if positions reverse, additional downward pressure on yields and the dollar could support higher gold prices.

By region, Europe saw the largest inflows at $2.0 billion, followed by Asia at $616.0 million and North America at $71.0 million. Gold prices rose about 2 percent in July, ending four straight months of declines, and in August gains widened as the end of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran and the U.S. Treasury's expanded bond buybacks increased geopolitical and fiscal uncertainty.

Markets are watching whether the joint rise in bitcoin and gold reflects concerns about trust in the dollar and U.S. fiscal soundness. Jake Kunis (제이크 케니스), chief research analyst at Nansen, said the move in both assets aligns with hedging trades in real assets, but added it is difficult to be definitive based only on the correlation at this point.

The significance of the move lies less in gold and bitcoin rising in the same direction than in their responding to the same macro factors, a weaker dollar and falling rates, through different logic. Gold has seen a confirmed recovery in inflows, while bitcoin is again aiming for the $80,000 level as an alternative currency asset.