Bitcoin survives a 5.2% Treasury shock as traders slash $1.7 billion in leverage

Bitcoin is holding near $84,000 even as a historic US bond selloff pushes Treasury yields to decades-high levels.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.22%, extending a move that has taken borrowing costs to their highest level since 2007. The 30-year yield reached a fresh 22-year high of 5.5185% before trading around 5.511%, up nearly five basis points on the session.

The surge is raising the hurdle for Bitcoin and other risk assets by offering investors yields above 5% on US government debt while simultaneously lifting financing costs throughout the financial system.

Yet crypto has absorbed the latest leg of the bond rout relatively calmly so far. Bitcoin remained inside a roughly $83,000 to $85,000 range after retreating from this week's high near $87,000.

Camran Khosravi, an analyst at Bitwise, said Bitcoin has gained about 22% since Aug. 19 even as the 10-year real yield climbed 50 basis points. Real yields have risen steadily, while Bitcoin posted most of its gains early in the period and then held much of them.

That leaves traders confronting whether Bitcoin can continue resisting one of the sharpest increases in risk-free yields in decades.

5% Treasury yields raise Bitcoin’s opportunity cost