Pantera Founder Says U.S. Treasury Buyback Expansion Backfired

Pantera Capital founder Dan Morehead said on Bloomberg Crypto that the U.S. Treasury’s expanded bond buyback plan was a backfiring show of force, and that investors almost immediately saw through Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s move. Morehead said the Treasury doubled the size of its buybacks on Aug. 19 to at least $4 billion per operation in an effort to reduce borrowing costs. But he argued that the increase was tiny compared with the $2 trillion in bonds the Treasury has to sell each year, and that it ended up highlighting how serious the debt problem is. He linked Bitcoin’s 26% gain in August directly to that backdrop and repeated his view that crypto is a macro trade that benefits when governments keep expanding debt. Once the current pullback ends, Morehead said, he expects Bitcoin to start another leg higher.