coindesk.com
Bitcoin $BTC$68,663.56 jumped above $68,000 during U.S. morning trading hours on Wednesday, rising about 6% over the past 24 hours after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent doubled the size of its bond buyback operations, a move investors viewed as a potential backstop for liquidity in the $30 trillion-plus Treasury market.
Crypto stocks also profited from the news, with green candles across almost the entire sector, led by Bullish (BLSH), up nearly 13%, followed by Coinbase (COIN), up 11%. With the sudden surge, about $1.4 billion in short positions got liquidated in the last 4 hours, as traders scrambled to close their bearish positions, according to CoinGlass data.
Gold also surged in response. The precious metal jumped 2.7% to $4,528 an ounce, the highest price since early June.
Leveraged trading picks up
Ether $ETH$2,096.18 and several altcoins outperformed $BTC during Wednesday’s rally, with $ETH rising by 8.44% to $2,084 - its highest level since May 27, while solana (SOL) is up 7% at $82.
Open interest on $ETH trading pairs spiked from $11.7 billion to $13 billion before falling back to $12.5 billion, suggesting a swathe of leveraged long positions from traders before those in shorts were liquidated or had to cover.
The rally comes just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with several leaders in crypto and the prediction markets sector, as well as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins and Commodities and Trading Commission (CFTC) Chair Mike Selig, as well as representative from Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange, CME Group, and the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC.)
Read more: Bitcoin nears key technical breakout that could propel prices to $76,000