Bitcoin soars, set for best day since Feb as Trump talks up crypto, yields fall

Bitcoin on Wednesday jumped and was on track for its best day since early February, after President Donald Trump talked up crypto and pushed Congress to pass a key industry legislation. A slide in longer-end U.S. Treasury yields also helped the mood.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency was last up 8% to $69,757.0 by 17:34 ET (21:34 GMT), hitting its highest level since June 1. The last time Bitcoin put in a better intraday performance was a more than 12% surge on February 6.

Trump hosts crypto executives a day ahead of key CFTC meeting Trump on Wednesday hosted top financial officials and CEOs of major crypto-related firms a day ahead of the first ever meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Innovation Advisory Committee. The body was created to provide recommendations relating to the impact of technological changes on U.S. financial markets.

"We’re ensuring that America remains the undisputed leader not only in Bitcoin and crypto, but also technologies like prediction markets, artificial intelligence, and much more," Trump said.

The president was joined by CFTC Chairman Mike Selig and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Paul Atkins. Company executives included Robinhood top boss Vlad Tenev and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi.

"We need Congress to take the next step by passing a fair version of the CLARITY Act...[which] will open the door to the next wave of innovation and innovators," Trump said, referring to the landmark Digital Asset Market Clarity Act.

SEC proposes new crypto regulations The White House meeting came a day after the SEC proposed new rules aimed at creating a tailored framework for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.

The proposal, called "Regulation Crypto Assets," would establish two exemptions from securities registration requirements. One would let eligible issuers raise up to $5 million over a four-year period, while the other would permit offerings of up to $75 million in any 12-month period.

Atkins said the proposal sought to give crypto entrepreneurs and market participants clear pathways to raise capital under federal securities laws. He added that, in line with the SEC’s earlier interpretative guidance, the plan would also allow a safe harbor once an issuer had completed or permanently ceased the essential managerial efforts it had promised under an investment contract.

Treasury provides relief to bond markets Also helping risk sentiment on Wednesday was a major reprieve for the fixed-income market after the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced it would at least double buyback operations for long-dated bonds, sending the 30-year yield tumbling from nearly two-decade highs.

Effective September 9, liquidity support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal coupon securities (the 10-year to 20-year sector and the 20-year to 30-year sector) will double in size from $2 billion per operation to $4 billion.

"This increase in buyback operation sizes reflects Treasury’s desire to provide greater liquidity support in longer-dated nominal sectors where there is consistent strong sponsorship from market participants, as evidenced by the significant volume of high-quality offers Treasury routinely receives in longer-dated buyback operations," the department said in a statement.

The move led to an immediate reaction across the longer-end U.S. Treasury yield curve, as traders snapped up bonds. The 30-year yield was last down 8.9 basis points to 5.196%, a day after hitting 5.337%, its highest level since June 2007.

Coming into Wednesday, longer-term bonds in particular had been caught up in a sell-off roughly since the Fed’s July interest rate decision, driven by inflation jitters due to rising oil prices and concerns over the massive amount of debt being issued by mega-cap companies to fund their artificial intelligence infrastructure spending. Shorter maturities had fared much better, helped by recent economic data that reduced expectations of imminent Fed rate hikes.