Bitcoin Holds Near $78,000 as US Bond Yields Hit 20-Year Highs

Bitcoin (BTC) gyrated around $78,000 at Monday’s Wall Street open as US bond yields neared 20-year highs again.

Key points:

Bitcoin reacts as the US Treasury Secretary comments on bond markets in a mainstream media interview.

Analysis warns that bonds are “ignoring” policy changes as new 20-year highs loom for the 30-year yield.

BTC price analysis sees an emerging hidden bearish RSI divergence contributing to month-end weakness.

Bitcoin spikes as Bessent discusses bond yields

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD trading in a narrow range, up around 1% on the day.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

After falling into the start of the US trading session, the pair saw a swift rebound as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hinted at further interventions in the US bond market. In an interview with CNBC, Bessent stressed that he had not yet acted to shore up the long end of the yield curve — 10-year and 30-year bonds.

“I haven’t bought anything yet,” he told the network, adding that he was “fine” with yields rebounding after the announcement.

This month, the Treasury announced that it would be at least doubling the size of its debt buyback transactions to $4 billion from September. At the time, yields fell, but on Monday, the 10-year yield was back at its highest levels since January 2025 at 4.76%.

US 10-year bond yield one-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The 30-year yield reached 5.269% on the day, six basis points short of its highest levels since January 2007.

“The bond market appears to be completely ignoring the US Treasury,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter responded in a post on X.

US 30-year bond yield one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Earlier, Ray Dalio expressed skepticism at the Treasury’s ability to control bonds, even under the new program. Forecasting a future US debt crisis, he named both Bitcoin and gold as potential hedges.

“As general advice, I suggest diversifying well in asset classes and countries that have strong income statements and balance sheets and are not having great internal political and external geopolitical conflicts, underweighting debt assets like bonds, and overweighting gold and a bit of Bitcoin,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

US stocks, meanwhile, remained red on the day, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index trading around 0.4% lower as tensions over new US-Iran strikes filtered through to markets.

Bitcoin RSI sparks new bearish warning

Ahead of the August monthly candle close, BTC/USD maintained its 50-week exponential moving average (EMA) at $77,269 as support.

Related: Bitcoin bear market ‘over’ as price metric copies 2023 recovery: CryptoQuant CEO

BTC/USD one-hour chart with 50-week EMA. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Previously, Cointelegraph reported that this level is a key line in the sand for bulls. Month-to-date gains have neared 25% in Bitcoin’s best August performance since 2017.

In a note of caution, trader and analyst Rekt Capital warned of a hidden bearish divergence playing out on daily time frames between price and the relative strength index (RSI). Despite bullish RSI signals on the weekly chart, the latest daily values, he warned, pointed to waning momentum.

“if the Daily RSI continues to make Lower Highs (blue), that’ll contribute to mounting weakness here,” he told X followers alongside an explanatory chart.

Daily RSI measured 70.7 on Monday, still within “overbought” territory.

BTC/USD one-day chart with RSI data. Source: Rekt Capital on X.com