Crypto Biz: Treasury’s ‘Not-QE’ playbook sends Bitcoin higher

Bitcoin and the broader digital asset market got a taste of “not-QE” this week — and liked it.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) jumped more than 23% toward $79,000 and Ether’s price crossed $2,400 after the US Treasury moved to double certain long-dated bond buybacks, adding fuel to an increasingly important question for digital asset markets. If Washington keeps finding new ways to support liquidity without technically embarking on quantitative easing, could Bitcoin and other risk assets become some of the biggest beneficiaries?

That question is already shaping business decisions across crypto. Standard Chartered sees Bitcoin heading toward $100,000, Metaplanet is taking its Bitcoin treasury strategy to the US and Cypherpunk Technologies is making a $33 million bet on Zcash mining.

Standard Chartered analyst sees Bitcoin reaching $100,000 as Treasury buybacks expand

Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick said Bitcoin could reach $100,000 by year-end as the US Treasury doubles long-end bond buybacks, a move he described as “exactly the type of thing Bitcoin loves.”

Kendrick said in a client note that BTC’s key technical level is $65,500 and breaking above it could confirm the cycle low is in. He cited Wednesday’s Treasury plan to at least double buyback operations for 10- to 20-year and 20- to 30-year coupons. Long-dated yields fell, and Bitcoin’s price immediately climbed more than 6% to nearly $69,000, its highest since early June, per CoinMarketCap.