Bitcoin Jumped Nearly 10 Percent Overnight to Cross $76,000, Global Gold Neared $4,560; Iran Market Pulse, Midday Friday, August 21, 2026

Lead

Bitcoin climbed from roughly $69,327 (Thursday evening, 29 Mordad) to $76,505 by 10:52 a.m. Tehran time today, Friday, 30 Mordad 1405 (August 21, 2026), a jump of nearly 10 percent that analysts tie directly to the US Treasury's announcement that it will at least double its long-term bond buybacks. At the same time, global spot gold, having broken above $4,500 on Thursday, reached $4,567.72 today. But this parallel-market rally came alongside a pullback on Wall Street at Thursday's close (the Nasdaq down about 1 percent, the S&P 500 down about 0.9 percent), a sign of money rotating into safe havens and crypto rather than a broad rally across every market. The Tehran Stock Exchange and Farabourse are closed today and tomorrow; their last session was Tuesday, 28 Mordad.

Today's Snapshot

Today's Top Headlines

• Gold and coin prices in Tehran rose this Friday morning, with 18-karat gold nearing the 20-million-toman mark (Ecoiran, 07:48 today).
• Brent topped $93 overnight after a fifth straight day of gains, driven by the ongoing US-Iran diplomatic impasse (Oilprice, 19:43 yesterday).
• US Treasury Secretary Bessent said the "harshest sanctions in history" against Iran are coming, and the Treasury sanctioned 10 people linked to Iran and Hezbollah; Iran's Foreign Ministry called the move "economic terrorism" (Al Jazeera and IRNA, yesterday 19:40 to 19:41).
• China's growing purchases of Russian oil through western ports have squeezed India's share of that trade, pushing India's oil imports to their lowest level since the Iran war began (Oilprice, 03:41 today).
• Ako's IPO, Tehran Stock Exchange's third this year, drew more than 1.4 million shareholder codes (BourseNews, yesterday 23:41).

Currency

In the last recorded reading from Tehran's free market (Thursday evening, 29 Mordad, 16:59), the US dollar traded at 189,405 tomans and the "agreed-rate" dollar at 189,415 tomans, essentially level with the free rate. By contrast, the official rate at Iran's Currency and Gold Exchange Center stood at 156,545 tomans (sell) and 155,137 tomans (buy) for the dollar, a gap of roughly 34,000 tomans versus the free market that has held steady in recent days. The euro traded at 221,210 tomans, the UAE dirham at 51,598 tomans and the Turkish lira at 3,960 tomans (all as of Thursday evening). Tehran's free currency market is typically thin on Thursdays and Fridays, and no fresher free-rate reading has posted. In global markets, the euro rose 0.18% and the pound 0.17% against the dollar today, while the dollar slipped 0.14% against the yen (Sahmino, 10:54 today), a mild sign of dollar softness continuing the market's reaction to Wednesday's Treasury buyback announcement.

Gold and Coin

Global spot gold reached $4,567.72 at 10:53 today, up 1.05% on the day. Trading Economics put gold at $4,562.27 (up 1.03%) over the same window, and TGJU at $4,533.58; the small gap between the three reflects the exact moment each platform recorded its price, though all three point the same direction. Gold is now closing out a third straight weekly gain, though it remains well below its all-time high of $5,608 set in January (Dey 1404). In the domestic market, traded 18-karat gold stood at 19,767,100 tomans a gram at 10:54 today (197,671,000 rials), while the goldsmiths' union rate for 18-karat gold in its last posting (Thursday evening) was 19,852,700 tomans a gram; Ecoiran reported that figure nearing the 20-million-toman channel this morning. The Emami coin's last recorded price in Sahmino's system (Thursday evening) was 199,540,000 tomans, and Arzdigital reported it crossing 198 million tomans Thursday evening; the coin premium was calculated at 59,000 tomans at that moment. A mesghal of gold priced at 86,003,000 tomans and 24-karat gold at 26,470,000 tomans.

Tehran Stock Exchange and Farabourse

The Tehran Stock Exchange and Farabourse are closed today, Friday, 30 Mordad, and are due to reopen Saturday, 31 Mordad, per the trading calendar. Their last session was Tuesday, 28 Mordad: TEDPIX rose 4,928 points to 5,952,488, and the equal-weight index rose 13,131 points to 1,686,843; trade value that day reached roughly 374,508 billion tomans. The Farabourse index, entirely separate from TEDPIX, rose 166 points to 47,854 the same day. In that session, retail buying across the whole market outpaced retail selling by nearly 7 billion tomans, while institutions were net sellers; retail flow was positive on both the bourse and Farabourse boards. Ako's IPO, per BourseNews, drew more than 1.4 million shareholder codes, marking Tehran Stock Exchange's third listing this year.

Crypto

Bitcoin's latest reading in Sahmino's system, at 10:52 today, was $76,505, up 4.97% (about $3,621) over the past 24 hours. TGJU put Bitcoin at $75,225 over the same window and Arzdigital at $76,397 (up 9.75% by that platform's own 24-hour calculation); three independent sources confirm a sharp rally, even as the exact percentage varies by measurement window. The move directly extends Thursday evening's jump: according to Khabar Online, citing ISNA, Bitcoin rose about 8% Thursday evening to $69,327 after the US Treasury announced it would at least double its long-term bond buybacks, a move the market read as a form of indirect easing and dollar weakening; short sellers were forced to buy back nearly $1.5 billion of short positions. Since Thursday evening, Bitcoin has risen roughly another 10%. Ethereum reached $2,388 today (up 2.53%) and Ripple rose 6.45% to $1.32; per Khabar Online, Ethereum alone had jumped about 17.5% Thursday evening. Tether held near $1 globally, with the domestic toman rate near 189,000 tomans, tracking the free-market dollar.

Iron and Steel

The Iran Mercantile Exchange's last settlement for A3 rebar, size 14-20, recorded Tuesday, 28 Mordad, was 700,476 rials a kilogram (70,048 tomans); for size 22-32 it was 679,934 rials (67,993 tomans). In the open market, Aryan Steel's factory-gate A3 rebar (size 14) priced at 70,450 tomans today and its size-10 A3 rebar at 71,820 tomans; the gap between the open market and the exchange settlement for these sizes is under two percent, far narrower than in recent tense weeks. Coking coal, a key steelmaking input, has risen 25% in the first seven months of the year, per Oilprice, squeezing the margins of India's steelmakers, major buyers of regional iron ore and steel products; analysts attribute part of that rise to the Iran war and the resulting disruption to energy supply chains. The commodity exchange is closed today and tomorrow.

Cars

The car market was quiet heading into the weekend. Saipa's Pride 151 GX, 1405 model, priced at 1,150,000,000 tomans today, and the 1404 model of the same trim at 1,100,000,000 tomans, both with no material change from recent days. Per Donya-e-Eqtesad, Saipa's lottery-free registration for ordinary buyers opens on the first of Shahrivar, a development that could affect free-market demand for the automaker in the days ahead. Parliament's Energy Commission spokesperson also said today that a fourth-tier gasoline price hike is currently off the table, news that touches car-ownership costs only indirectly.

Building Materials

On the commodity exchange, bulk Type 2 (42.5) cement's last settlement, Tuesday 28 Mordad, was 27,562 rials a kilogram (2,756 tomans). By contrast, a 50-kilogram bag of Abyk Type 2 Portland cement retails today at 289,000 tomans, about 5,780 tomans a kilogram at the retail level, more than double the exchange-settled bulk rate; the gap mostly reflects packaging, freight and retail-distribution costs. Per Donya-e-Eqtesad, building-material price growth stalled in Mordad, but per-square-meter construction costs remain 80 to 90 percent above last Mordad; a stall in growth is not a drop in cost, only a slowdown in its pace. The Central Bank simultaneously raised the home purchase and construction loan ceiling for Tehran couples to 2 billion tomans, a decision that could affect part of the building-materials market's demand in coming months.

Regional and Global Outlook

Brent crude stood at $93.41 at 10:53 today, essentially flat on the day; but overnight it had topped $93 for the first time after a fifth consecutive daily gain, in the shadow of the ongoing US-Iran diplomatic impasse. Wall Street indices moved the opposite way at Thursday's close: the Nasdaq fell 1% to 26,067 and the S&P 500 fell 0.87% to 7,641; in Europe, the Euro Stoxx 50 rose 0.3% today. Regionally, per Oilprice, China's rising purchases of Russian oil through western ports have squeezed India's share of that trade, pushing India's oil imports to their lowest level since the Iran war began; the UAE's ADNOC held its ninth spot crude tender since June and has sold more than 100 million barrels across those eight tenders, a sign of Abu Dhabi's effort to work around the Strait of Hormuz crisis. The US Treasury Secretary said the "harshest sanctions in history" against Iran are coming, and the Treasury sanctioned 10 people linked to Iran and Hezbollah; Trump also threatened countries aiding Iran with "tremendous economic consequences." Iran's Foreign Ministry called the measures "economic terrorism." Hours before that threat, Tajikistan, facing a fuel crisis in Russia, its traditional largest supplier, requested to import 2.55 million tons of oil and fuel products from Iran.

Bottom Line

Today belonged to crypto and gold, not the bourse or the dollar: Bitcoin climbed nearly 10% in a day and global gold closed in on $4,600, while Wall Street pulled back overnight and Tehran's currency market and stock exchange stayed quiet and closed. Both rallies share one driver: the US Treasury's move to double its long-term bond buybacks, which markets read as a sign of easier policy and a weaker dollar. What to remember: in Tehran, gold and coin followed that global wave with a day's lag, but the free-market dollar stayed indifferent.

What To Watch Today

• Subscription for the 14th silver investment fund ("Noqreh-Amad") opens on the Iran Mercantile Exchange from the first of Shahrivar.
• Saipa's lottery-free registration for ordinary buyers opens from the first of Shahrivar.
• Tehran Stock Exchange and Farabourse reopen Saturday, 31 Mordad, after two days closed.
• Continued global market reaction to the US Treasury's bond-buyback program and the path of the 30-year yield, which climbed back to 5.26% overnight.
• Track the new US sanctions on Iran and possible responses on Sahmino's economic calendar.