Bitcoin surged more than 6% on Wednesday, August 19, briefly touching $69,700 after the U.S. Treasury announced it would double its long-term bond buyback operations, prompting a broad rally across cryptocurrency and precious metals markets.
The Treasury stated that it will enhance liquidity assistance buyback operations on longer-dated nominal coupon securities from $2 billion per transaction to at least $4 billion, from September 9 to November 4, 2026.
As soon as the news broke, stock markets shot up. Ethereum climbed 8.8% to trade at $2,084, Solana advanced 7% to $81.51, and XRP was up more than 6% to trade at $1.06. Meanwhile, gold climbed 3.5% to $4,487 per ounce, its highest price since June, amid a decline of the dollar index by 0.8%.
Famous economist Peter Schiff warned on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the Treasury is stepping in to buy long-term bonds that private investors no longer want, with the money ultimately created by the Federal Reserve.
Bitcoin pushed briefly above its 200-day simple moving average at $69,031, a key long-term trend gauge. A sustained break above this level could indicate the end of the bear market and revival of a bullish trend, analysts said.
With this trend, over $1.3 billion in crypto derivatives liquidations, wiping out traders who were short from previous range highs.
2026-08-19 22:30:00
