Bitcoin jumps after Treasury moves to expand debt repurchases
Bitcoin rose sharply on Wednesday after the U.S. Treasury said it would more than double the size of its government debt repurchases. The price briefly touched $68,982 and was last at $68,473 at 10:30 a.m. in New York, up nearly 3% over the previous 24 hours.
The report says bitcoin gained more than 3% over the past week. Its 30-day move, which had recently been flat, was also close to a 3% gain.
The Treasury said on Wednesday that it would more than double the size of its government debt repurchases because fixed-income markets were under pressure and yields had surged to levels not seen in nearly 20 years.
In its statement, the department said the larger buyback operations reflect its desire to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors, where market participants have consistently shown strong demand and where Treasury routinely receives a significant volume of high-quality offers.
Lower long-term yields reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets such as bitcoin and gold, and the report says that generally supports risk-on sentiment. On the day of the announcement, bitcoin moved with stocks while the U.S. dollar fell sharply.
The article also notes that bitcoin has been under pressure since setting a new all-time high of $126,080 in October, though the drawdown has been the shallowest bear market in its history so far.
Volatility has also fallen to record lows. The report says 2025 has been bitcoin’s least volatile year, and Fidelity said on Wednesday that bitcoin’s volatility is now lower than 98.5% of all days in its 17-year history.