$6 Billion Treasury Buyback, $80K Bitcoin: The Market’s “Meh” Moment 💸

A US Treasury buyback reached its full $6 billion cap on Tuesday, but Bitcoin remained below the $80,000 mark and traders did not treat the operation as a yield catalyst. Treasury accepted exactly $6 billion across six bonds after dealers offered $10.7 billion, marking the fourth full-size fill, FXStreet reported.

The operation was routine rather than a surprise. Newsquawk described Treasury’s liquidity support operations as tools for helping dealers offload older, thinly traded bonds, with sizes designed to avoid shifting yields. Treasury paid between 52 and 71 cents on the dollar, requiring a cash outlay of about $3.8 billion.

Bitcoin had gained about 7% on August 19, when Treasury announced it would double long-dated buybacks to at least $4 billion per operation. The announcement caught investors by surprise, while the 30-year yield pulled back from its highest level in 19 years. Tuesday’s scheduled operation produced no comparable announcement, and Bitcoin later slipped below $80,000 again, CoinGecko data showed on Thursday, down 1.5% over 24 hours.

Yields have also resisted the program’s expansion. The 10-year yield touched 5.342%, its highest since April 2002, as Treasury filled its cap on October 1, Yahoo reported. The Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting overlapped with Tuesday’s operation; the central bank held rates steady on Wednesday, NPR reported. The expanded schedule runs through November 4, Chase noted, and filled caps have not clearly pulled long-term yields lower.