Bitcoin jumped nearly 7% on Friday and is up 23% this week to around $77,380, its highest level since May, after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's bond market intervention rattled confidence in the dollar. The rally triggered a short squeeze that wiped out more than a billion dollars in bearish positions, and Michael Saylor's Strategy swung back into profit on its Bitcoin treasury.
Bitcoin is set for its best week in more than three years after Bessent's surprise move in the bond market sent investors fleeing the dollar for alternative stores of value. The price jumped nearly 7% on Friday and is up 23% this week to around $77,380, its highest level since May. Gold moved in tandem, gaining 1.5% on Friday to about $4,585 a troy ounce for its biggest monthly gain since 1999.
Bessent's bond move rattles the dollar
The moves follow Bessent's announcement on Wednesday that the Treasury would "at least" double its purchases of long-term government debt from next month after a sell-off in 10-year and 30-year Treasury bonds pushed US borrowing costs to multi-decade highs. The dollar has since fallen about 1% against a basket of currencies since Tuesday, as investors worried about inflation and America's debt load piled into so-called debasement trades. According to the Financial Times: "Bessent's interventions do nothing to deal with fundamental vulnerabilities", said Matt King, macro strategist and founder of Satori Insights.
Short sellers get squeezed
The sudden move higher triggered a short squeeze as traders betting against Bitcoin rushed to close their positions. CoinGlass data showed about $1.5 billion in total crypto liquidations across 178,777 traders over 24 hours, with short positions accounting for roughly $1.21 billion of that sum. Bitcoin touched an intraday high of $79,320 on Friday, even as it remained down roughly 31.8% from a year ago. The rally has coincided with favorable headlines out of Washington, including Trump backing the crypto market-structure Clarity Act at a White House gathering this week.
Saylor's Strategy swings back to profit
The rebound has also lifted long-term holders who had been underwater for months. Strategy's Bitcoin treasury, which stands at 840,447 BTC with a cost basis around $75,000, is now worth about $65.24 billion. That leaves Michael Saylor with a modest profit of about $1.63 billion, though the firm's realized losses still sit around $103.58 million, so the recovery remains partial even as Bitcoin reclaims ground it lost earlier this year.
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
