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Moderna's breakthrough vaccine results sent its 2X leveraged ETF soaring more than 200%.
Crypto, AI and gold rallies fueled triple-digit gains in several leveraged ETFs.
Treasury buybacks boosted the debasement trade, while rate-hike risks threaten growth ETFs.
Wall Street delivered an upbeat August, with the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY - Free Report) offering 3.7% over the past month (as of Aug. 30, 2026). State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA - Free Report) has added about 2.6%, the Nasdaq-100 ETF Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (QQQ - Free Report) tacked on 4.8% gains, and the small-cap iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM - Free Report) added about 1.1%.
Let’s take a look at the key events of the month.
Treasury Department to Buyback Long-Term Bonds
In late August, the Treasury Department announced its decision to double the maximum size of its bond buyback operation to at least $4 billion from $2 billion. The move is aimed at containing rising bond yields.
Although the purchases are small compared with the broader Treasury market, they sent a strong signal to investors and gave fresh momentum to the debasement trade (read: GLD, IBIT and Other ETFs to Play Debasement Trade).
U.S. Dollar Slips to a Three-Month Low
The U.S. dollar fell to a three-month low against the euro, as concerns grew that the U.S. Treasury’s plan to expand buybacks of longer-dated government debt could put additional pressure on the greenback.
Note that the U.S. dollar fund Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP - Free Report) , which offers direct exposure to the U.S. dollar, was under pressure between Aug. 18 and Aug. 28. Over the past month (as of Aug. 28, 2026), UUP is up just 0.14%. Since the U.S. dollar slipped, safe-haven asset gold has jumped 8.4%.
Jump in Cryptocurrencies
Crypto-related shares have rallied. Bitcoin, which is often viewed as an alternative to traditional fiat currencies, extended its rally. Bitcoin soared about 23% over the past month and crossed the $80K-mark in late August. Ethereum added about 32% over the past month (read: Bitcoin Reclaims $69K on Treasury Move: More ETF Upside Ahead?).
A White House meeting involving President Trump and cryptocurrency executives revived expectations for progress on the CLARITY Act and a more favorable U.S. digital-asset framework. The move and the dollar debasement trade led to the spike in cryptocurrencies.
NVIDIA Raises the Bar on AI Growth
NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) came up with an upbeat earnings report and projected about 70% revenue growth in fiscal 2028. This was well above Wall Street's current forecast of roughly 43% growth and about $570 billion in revenues. NVIDIA’s growth outlook reinforced the AI boom, benefiting ETFs targeting generative AI, quantum computing, robotics and next-gen software.
Fed May Hike Rates in September
Speaking at the Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole symposium in late August, Fed chief Warsh indicated that recent inflation readings have not provided enough evidence of a sustained slowdown in underlying price pressures, as quoted on CNBC.
His comments prompted traders to sharply increase expectations for a September rate hike. Fed funds futures showed a 57% probability of a hike, up from 39.9% a week ago (at the time of writing), according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Short-term Treasury yields initially moved higher following the speech, reflecting growing expectations for tighter monetary policy, while longer-dated yields were relatively steady.
Leveraged ETF Winners of August
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few winning leveraged ETFs of the month of August.
Defiance Daily Target 2X Long MRNA ETFMRNX – Up 205.1%
Biotech company Moderna (MRNA - Free Report) saw a massive 138% surge over the past month, after the company and Merck announced on Aug. 19 that their experimental personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine, intismeran, met its primary goals in a landmark Phase 3 clinical trial.
The combination of the vaccine with Merck’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda delayed cancer recurrence and prevented it from spreading in high-risk patients.
Defiance Daily Target 2X Long PURR ETF PUR – Up 190.9%
Hyperliquid Strategies IncPURR shares have skyrocketed 84.3% over the past month. The primary focus of this digital asset treasury company is to maximize shareholder value by accumulating HYPE, the native token of Hyperliquid, a high-performance blockchain custom-built to house all of finance.
On Aug. 19, President Donald Trump said CFTC Chair Mike Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a compliant manner. The statement helped the stock soar.
UiPath Inc (PATH - Free Report) shares have surged 46.7% over the past month. UiPath delivers its complete business automation and orchestration platform as a fully managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model through UiPath Automation Cloud.
Strong results and commentary from large software companies, particularly Salesforce and Palantir, eased fears that generative AI would destroy traditional SaaS businesses.
Leverage Shares 2X Long CRM Daily ETFCRMG – Up 104.7%
Shares of Salesforce (CRM - Free Report) are up about 42% over the past month. The rise in share price is remarkable at the end of the month, following a beat on second-quarter earnings and expansion of the company’s partnership with Anthropic. Salesforce shares surged 22.8% last week, helping the leveraged fund surge.
Gold bullion ETF SPDR Gold Trust (GLD - Free Report) has jumped about 8.4% over the past month (as of Aug. 29, 2026). Safe-haven demand and a flat greenback have boosted gold prices in the month. As mining ETFs often act as leveraged plays of the underlying metal, VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX - Free Report) has surged about 30% over the past month (as of Aug. 28, 2026) and strengthened the leveraged ETN even more.
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Image: Bigstock
Best-Performing Leveraged ETFs of August
Key Takeaways
Wall Street delivered an upbeat August, with the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY - Free Report) offering 3.7% over the past month (as of Aug. 30, 2026). State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA - Free Report) has added about 2.6%, the Nasdaq-100 ETF Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (QQQ - Free Report) tacked on 4.8% gains, and the small-cap iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM - Free Report) added about 1.1%.
Let’s take a look at the key events of the month.
Treasury Department to Buyback Long-Term Bonds
In late August, the Treasury Department announced its decision to double the maximum size of its bond buyback operation to at least $4 billion from $2 billion. The move is aimed at containing rising bond yields.
Although the purchases are small compared with the broader Treasury market, they sent a strong signal to investors and gave fresh momentum to the debasement trade (read: GLD, IBIT and Other ETFs to Play Debasement Trade).
U.S. Dollar Slips to a Three-Month Low
The U.S. dollar fell to a three-month low against the euro, as concerns grew that the U.S. Treasury’s plan to expand buybacks of longer-dated government debt could put additional pressure on the greenback.
Note that the U.S. dollar fund Invesco DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP - Free Report) , which offers direct exposure to the U.S. dollar, was under pressure between Aug. 18 and Aug. 28. Over the past month (as of Aug. 28, 2026), UUP is up just 0.14%. Since the U.S. dollar slipped, safe-haven asset gold has jumped 8.4%.
Jump in Cryptocurrencies
Crypto-related shares have rallied. Bitcoin, which is often viewed as an alternative to traditional fiat currencies, extended its rally. Bitcoin soared about 23% over the past month and crossed the $80K-mark in late August. Ethereum added about 32% over the past month (read: Bitcoin Reclaims $69K on Treasury Move: More ETF Upside Ahead?).
A White House meeting involving President Trump and cryptocurrency executives revived expectations for progress on the CLARITY Act and a more favorable U.S. digital-asset framework. The move and the dollar debasement trade led to the spike in cryptocurrencies.
NVIDIA Raises the Bar on AI Growth
NVIDIA (NVDA - Free Report) came up with an upbeat earnings report and projected about 70% revenue growth in fiscal 2028. This was well above Wall Street's current forecast of roughly 43% growth and about $570 billion in revenues. NVIDIA’s growth outlook reinforced the AI boom, benefiting ETFs targeting generative AI, quantum computing, robotics and next-gen software.
Fed May Hike Rates in September
Speaking at the Federal Reserve’s annual Jackson Hole symposium in late August, Fed chief Warsh indicated that recent inflation readings have not provided enough evidence of a sustained slowdown in underlying price pressures, as quoted on CNBC.
His comments prompted traders to sharply increase expectations for a September rate hike. Fed funds futures showed a 57% probability of a hike, up from 39.9% a week ago (at the time of writing), according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
Short-term Treasury yields initially moved higher following the speech, reflecting growing expectations for tighter monetary policy, while longer-dated yields were relatively steady.
Leveraged ETF Winners of August
Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few winning leveraged ETFs of the month of August.
Defiance Daily Target 2X Long MRNA ETF MRNX – Up 205.1%
Biotech company Moderna (MRNA - Free Report) saw a massive 138% surge over the past month, after the company and Merck announced on Aug. 19 that their experimental personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine, intismeran, met its primary goals in a landmark Phase 3 clinical trial.
The combination of the vaccine with Merck’s immunotherapy drug Keytruda delayed cancer recurrence and prevented it from spreading in high-risk patients.
Defiance Daily Target 2X Long PURR ETF PUR – Up 190.9%
Hyperliquid Strategies Inc PURR shares have skyrocketed 84.3% over the past month. The primary focus of this digital asset treasury company is to maximize shareholder value by accumulating HYPE, the native token of Hyperliquid, a high-performance blockchain custom-built to house all of finance.
On Aug. 19, President Donald Trump said CFTC Chair Mike Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a compliant manner. The statement helped the stock soar.
Tradr 2X Long PATH Daily ETF PATX – Up 133.3%
UiPath Inc (PATH - Free Report) shares have surged 46.7% over the past month. UiPath delivers its complete business automation and orchestration platform as a fully managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model through UiPath Automation Cloud.
Strong results and commentary from large software companies, particularly Salesforce and Palantir, eased fears that generative AI would destroy traditional SaaS businesses.
Leverage Shares 2X Long CRM Daily ETF CRMG – Up 104.7%
Shares of Salesforce (CRM - Free Report) are up about 42% over the past month. The rise in share price is remarkable at the end of the month, following a beat on second-quarter earnings and expansion of the company’s partnership with Anthropic. Salesforce shares surged 22.8% last week, helping the leveraged fund surge.
MicroSectors Gold Miners 3X Leveraged ETN (GDXU - Free Report) – Up 103.2%
Gold bullion ETF SPDR Gold Trust (GLD - Free Report) has jumped about 8.4% over the past month (as of Aug. 29, 2026). Safe-haven demand and a flat greenback have boosted gold prices in the month. As mining ETFs often act as leveraged plays of the underlying metal, VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX - Free Report) has surged about 30% over the past month (as of Aug. 28, 2026) and strengthened the leveraged ETN even more.