Bitcoin holds above $77,000 as Bessent's bond buyback fails to lower yields

Bitcoin traded above $77,000 after posting a 21% gain over the past week, with XRP up 46% over the same stretch, according to CoinDesk. The rally has coincided with stress in the Treasury market: Bessent's $4 billion bond buyback program, intended to push yields lower, instead preceded a bitcoin surge rather than the bond-market calm officials wanted. Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, said investors should own "a bit of Bitcoin" given rising U.S. debt risks, framing the current Treasury stress as consistent with his long-running debt-crisis thesis. He said he still views gold as the larger hedge against that scenario, positioning bitcoin as a smaller complementary allocation rather than a primary one. What remains unresolved is whether the bitcoin move is a genuine flight from Treasury risk or simply a continuation of a rally already underway before the buyback, since Asian equities including Samsung and Alibaba fell over the same period.