Gold
+13%
Near $4,700 peak
itcoin
+28%
Back above $80k
NVIDIA
+$442bn
Record Q2 result
Unitree
+460%
IPO day, then~$25bn wiped
RBA
4.35%
Held, inflation still sticky
August2026 was rifewithstories. Wehadarecordbreaking AI earnings result, gold’s bestmonthsince1999, and bitcoin climbingback above $80,000. Let’s unpack.
The backdrop: US and Iran
Fighting around the Strait of Hormuz remained a key market risk through August. When closure fears rose, oil prices climbed; when ceasefire hopes improved, they fell.
Aug 17
60-day settlement deadline expires
The deadline for the US and Iran to reach a final settlement passes with no deal. CNN, Aug 17, 2026
CNN, Aug 17, 2026
Aug 20
Treasury expands its bond buyback
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent named the war directly when heannouncedthe Treasury's bond buyback expansion, telling CNBC the Treasurywould "get on the otherside of this." He just couldn't say when.
CNBC, Aug 20, 2026
Aug 30
US strikes Larak Island
The deadline for the US and Iran to reach a final settlement passes with no deal. CNN, Aug 17, 2026
CNBC, Aug 20, 2026
Month end
Oil back above $84
WTI had slid to the mid $70s a barrel early in August on ceasefire hopes, then climbed back above $84 as those hopes faded and the Larak Island strike hit.
CNBC, Aug 31, 2026
This bond and market unease sets the backdrop for two of August's biggest trades: gold and bitcoin.
Gold: fear, debasement, and a 13% month
Gold climbed from around $4,000 an ounce early in August to a three-month high near $4,700, at one point on track for its best month this century (Mining.com.au, Aug 28, 2026).
Gold climbed from around US$4,000 to near US$4,700 during August as investors reacted to soft US data, the national debt passing US$40 trillion, the Iran war and expanded Treasury bond buybacks.
Then Jackson Hole changed the mood. Fed chair Kevin Warsh struck a hawkish tone on inflation on August 28, sending gold down more than 3% in a day and trimming its monthly gain to around 13% (BullionVault, Aug 28, 2026).
The Australian angle
ASX investors benefited through gold miners and bullion backed products such as GOLD, NUGG and PMGOLD, but a stronger Australian dollar reduced local returns slightly. (CommBank, Aug 6, 2026).
Bitcoin: back above US$80,000
Bitcoin cleared $80,000 for the first time since mid-May, touching an intraday high around $81,250 (Bloomberg, Aug 25, 2026). For reference, it's still well below its October 2025 high of roughly $126,000 (Reuters, Aug 25, 2026).
Leg 1: US Crypto Policy
Trump hosted crypto executives at the White House on August 19 and pushed Congress to pass the Clarity Act, aimed at clarifying whether cryptocurrencies aresecurities or commodities.
Bitcoin jumped around 22% over the following five days, its best five-day run since March 2024. Ether rose by a similar amount (Investing News Network, Aug 21, 2026).
Leg 2: Debasement
Then, once the Treasury's buyback announcement weakened the US dollar, bitcoin got a second leg up from the same debasement trade driving gold, with about $7.2 billion of leveraged bearish bets forced to close out ( The Star, Aug 25, 2026).
By August 25, bitcoin was up around 28% for the month (Reuters via Yahoo Finance, Aug 25 2026).
Bitcoin has historically moved with a higher risk appetite than gold, and in August it rose alongside gold on the same debasement-trade logic, just with much bigger swings in both directions.
Unlike gold and the ASX 200, getting exposure to bitcoin is an active choice via a crypto exchange, or one of the ASX listed spot bitcoin ETFs. Either way, the same AUD/USD conversion applies as with gold, where a stronger Australian dollar reduces bitcoin's USD gains once converted.
NVIDIA: the AI boom somehow got bigger
NVIDIA reported US$96.2 billion in quarterly revenue, up 106% year on year and ahead of expectations. Data centre revenue alone reached US$89 billion, up 117%. (CNBC, Aug 26, 2026).
Revenue
$96.2bn
+106% year on year
Data centre
$89bn
+117% year on year
Next-day move
+8.7%
Share price
Value added
+$442bn
Second-biggest ever
The bigger surprise was guidance. NVIDIA projected around 70% fiscal 2028 revenue growth, well above the roughly 44% Wall Street expected. The result sent the stock up 8.7%, adding US$442 billion in market value in a single day (Bloomberg, Aug 27, 2026).
A day later, reports said NVIDIA had paused parts of its Al Compute Partnership after employees raised concerns about customer control and potential antitrust scrutiny.
NVIDIA has also helped arrange roughly US$500 billion in customer financing and separately guaranteed up to US$105 billion to support OpenAl compute leases (Manila Times, Aug 29, 2026).
The Australian angle
ASX 200 investors captured little of this rally because technology makes up a relatively small part of the index. Exposure generally requires buying NVIDIA directly or using an AS listed Nasdaq 100 or global technology fund.
August was a month of extremes. AI enthusiasm pushed valuations higher, geopolitical risk drove investors toward gold, crypto came roaring back, and central banks reminded markets that inflation still has the power to change the story overnight.
The biggest opportunities came with the biggest swings, but momentum turned quickly.
Unitree: +460% on debut, then reality
Unitree Robotics listed on Shanghai’s STAR Market on August 19 and surged 460% on its first day, briefly reaching a valuation above US$66 billion (Bloomberg, Aug 19, 2026; NBC News, Aug 19, 2026).
Bloomberg & NBC News, Aug 19, 2026
IPO raised, at a roughly $9bn valuation
$904m
Intraday high valuation
$66bn
Close, day one (≈342bn yuan, +460%)
−$25bn
Wiped over the next three sessions
$904m
The excitement faded quickly. Investors focused on the fact that more than 70% of Unitree’s revenue comes from research and education customers, rather than large-scale industrial deployment. Adjusted profit also fell about 19% despite revenue growth of nearly 49% (BigGo Finance, Aug 2026).
The Australian angle
Unitree trades in yuan on Shanghai's STAR Market, which retail investors here generally can't access directly. The nearest options are US listed robotics and AI funds, bought through a broker with US market access, though whether and when any of them pick up a freshly listed A share stock like this is a separate question.
Central banks: nobody's declaring victory
RBA holds
The cash rate stayed at 4.35% for a second straight meeting, after threeearlierhikes liftedit from 3.60% (RBA, Aug 11, 2026).
Governor Michele Bullock said inflation remains a concern and another hike is still possible.
Fed provides a hawkish surprise
Fed chair Kevin Warsh used the Jackson Holespeech to warn the Fed still had “work to do” on inflation (CNBC, Aug 28, 2026).
Traders then wentfrompricing around a 40% chance of a Septemberhikea week earlier to 57% within days (CNBC, Aug 31, 2026). It was the same speech that knocked gold off its highs.
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