Treasury Buybacks Set Stage for Bitcoin’s Potential Move to $180,000
Quick Reads:
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says long-dated bond buybacks could top $4 billion, with room to grow further.
- Bitcoin holds above $72,000, a level where heavy short positions could fuel a squeeze.
- Strategist Mark Connors sets a bitcoin price target of $180,000, with $360,000 possible by 2030.
- A stalled Clarity Act by September 15 remains a key risk to the rally.
A new wave of Treasury bond buybacks may be quietly setting the stage for bitcoin’s next major breakout, with one closely watched strategist now pointing to a bitcoin price target of $180,000.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed Thursday that the government plans to routinely repurchase long-dated bonds, and the program could grow well beyond the $4 billion first announced. “We want to show that yields do not reflect underlying fundamentals,” Bessent told CNBC, adding that the Treasury has “a big toolkit” to work with.
The 10-year yield was hovering near 4.68% at the time of the comments, and bitcoin pushed higher in response, edging close to $73,000.
For Mark Connors, chief investment officer at Risk Dimensions and a longtime bond market investor, the buyback plan is more than a technical adjustment, it’s a signal. He called it “the first tell” that the government is responding to pressure from rising long-term borrowing costs, and he expects the purchases to scale up quickly, potentially reaching $10 billion to $30 billion a month.
That matters directly for the bitcoin price target Connors has in mind. High Treasury yields typically pull investment capital toward government debt and away from riskier assets like crypto. If buybacks help cap those yields, some of that pressure on bitcoin could ease. Connors had previously expected bitcoin to stay subdued until November, following its usual four-year cycle, but he’s now less convinced the market will need to wait that long.
He also flagged a possible next step: easing the supplementary leverage ratio (SLR), which limits how much government debt banks can hold. Loosening that rule could free up more bank demand for Treasurys. “When that happens, that’s when bitcoin starts to seek that first $180,000 price threshold,” Connors said, putting his broader cycle target between $180,000 and $360,000 through 2030.
In the short term, $72,000 is a level to watch closely. Charles Schwab’s director of crypto research, Jim Ferraioli, noted a heavy concentration of leveraged bitcoin shorts sitting around that price. If bitcoin holds or climbs above it, traders on the wrong side could be forced to buy back their positions, adding fuel to any rally.
Still, Connors isn’t ignoring the risks. He warned that bitcoin could pull back from $72,000 if the Clarity Act, key crypto legislation, fails to gain traction by around September 15. “Near-term price risk is predicated on Clarity,” he said.
