Bitcoin blew past $68,000 on Wednesday, jumping nearly 3% over a 24-hour period after news dropped that the U.S. Treasury planned to more than double the size of its government debt repurchases. 

The price of Bitcoin was recently at $68,473 at 10.30am in New York after briefly touching $68,982. The sharp jump came as yields dropped. 

Over the past week, the biggest and oldest cryptocurrency is up over 3%. Bitcoin had recently been flat over a 30-day period but is now also up by close to 3%. 

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that it will more than double the size of its government debt repurchases due to fixed income markets under pressure and yields surging to levels not seen in nearly 20 years.

“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. 

Lower long-term yields reduces the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like bitcoin and gold, and generally supports risk-on sentiment. 

Bitcoin behaved like a “risk-on” asset on the news, surging with stocks on the news, as the U.S. dollar fell sharply. 

The leading cryptocurrency has been battered since notching a new all-time high of $126,080 in October but has still experienced the shallowest bear market — so far — in its history. 

The coin’s volatility also stands at record lows: 2025 was the least volatile year for the asset and asset manager Fidelity on Wednesday said that its volatility is now lower than 98.5% of all days in its 17-year history.