Bitcoin’s problem may be bond yields

It’s been a wild 24 hours for Bitcoin, capping off a down week following a wave of negative headlines and rising bond yields which pushed prices down to the $25,000 level before rebounding slightly Friday.

The largest crypto by market value fell for the sixth consecutive day with losses of over 11%, as tracked by Dow Jones Market Data Group. 

Much of the crypto speculation on the downside volatility came after the Wall Street Journal reported  late Thursday that Elon Musk’s SpaceX wrote down or jettisoned $373 million of Bitcoin. 

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Inquiries by FOX Business to SpaceX were not immediately returned. 

Bitcoin Magazine, in a post on X, the social-media website formerly known as Twitter, questioned the accuracy of the reported sale or reduction. 

While Bitcoin Foundation Chairman Brock Pierce told FOX Business that the report may have contributed to the selloff, he also noted what may have an even bigger impact: rising Treasury yields. 

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“You have a number of other things that are called broader market based, like rising interest rates. And when you sit back and the government is paying high yields, but why take risk when you know government is going to pay a high yield and people move out of riskier investments to safer fund like investment products?” he noted. 

On Thursday, the yield on the 10-year hit 4.307%, a new 52-week high. The safety of this government debt is now at the highest since November 2007, as tracked by Dow Jones Market Data Group. Yields slipped slightly on Friday. 

The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 11 times to a 22-year high of 5.25% to 5.5%, and minutes from the last meeting, released this week, showed policymakers are still concerned about inflation, which may require more rate increases. 

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Additionally, the WSJ Dollar Index has been strengthening, up seven consecutive trading days, the largest seven-day point and percentage gain since Monday, July 24, 2023, as tracked by Dow Jones Market Data Group. 

Selling of bullish crypto positions have topped $1 billion, the most since June 2022, according to a research note by Hani Abuagla, senior market analyst at XTB.