Treasury bond buybacks lift Bitcoin toward $79,000

The U.S. Treasury said it would at least double repurchases of 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year Treasury coupons, expanding a buyback program that runs from Sept. 9 through Nov. 4. Market data showed yields on long-dated maturities declined after the announcement.

Bitcoin gained roughly 23% over the week to about $79,000. On the day of the Treasury announcement the cryptocurrency rallied more than 6% to nearly $69,000. Ether traded above $2,400 following the same news.

Geoff Kendrick of Standard Chartered called the buyback schedule “exactly the type of thing Bitcoin loves” and said a sustained break above $65,500 would confirm a cycle low and could allow a move toward $100,000 by year-end.

Tokyo-based Metaplanet agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Nasdaq-listed Super League Enterprise and will rename the company Superplanet. Metaplanet will contribute 2,100 BTC and $2.5 million in cash from its existing treasury to the U.S. vehicle; the 2,100 BTC represent under 5% of Metaplanet’s roughly 43,000 BTC holdings. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to shareholder approval and customary conditions. Super League’s share price rose more than 50% on the announcement. Metaplanet’s CEO Simon Gerovich described the structure as creating two capital-raising avenues, with Superplanet accessing U.S. markets while Metaplanet remains listed in Japan.

Cypherpunk Technologies acquired a mining fleet in a $33.33 million equity deal and began Zcash mining at U.S. facilities. The operation is producing about 4.2 GSol/s, roughly 18% of Zcash’s current network hashrate. Cypherpunk holds 323,394 ZEC, about 1.9% of circulating supply, and has set a target of owning 5% of the network. The Zcash network implemented an Ironwood upgrade on July 28 to replace the previous Orchard pool after a flaw was identified; developers reported no detected exploitation.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sent a request for comment on futures contracts tied to AI computing capacity to the White House Office of Management and Budget. CME Group plans to launch two compute futures contracts on Oct. 5, pending regulatory approval, with a private benchmark provider supplying data. Several financial firms estimate U.S. AI infrastructure spending this year at roughly 2% to 2.5% of GDP.

The Treasury program targets specific long maturities and is scheduled to run through early November. Market participants and several crypto firms announced transactions and strategy changes in the days following the buyback expansion.