Bitcoin is heading for its biggest weekly gain in three years

Bitcoin continued its rise on Friday, heading for its best weekly gain in three years, Bloomberg reports, writes UNN.

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As of 9:53 a.m. in London, the price of the original cryptocurrency had risen more than 8%, trading at around $78,500. It has risen approximately 25% this week, and if the gain holds, it will be the biggest weekly increase since March 2023.

Enthusiasm returned to the market when U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Wednesday that the department would at least double the volume of its long-term bond buybacks, triggering a rally that forced traders to liquidate billions of dollars in short positions. That same day, U.S. President Donald Trump met with cryptocurrency industry leaders, further boosting optimism.

"The real driver was the U.S. Treasury doubling its long-term bond buybacks, which lowered long-term bond yields and generally increased risk appetite," said Rachel Lucas, an analyst at BTC Markets. "Nothing has changed Bitcoin's long-term outlook, but nothing has changed its volatility either," she pointed out.

Short positions on Bitcoin remain the main factor driving Bitcoin price gains, says Adam Morgan McCarthy, lead researcher at LO:TECH, a London-based digital-asset liquidity and market-data firm. According to Coinglass data, more than $2 billion in bearish Bitcoin bets have been liquidated in the perpetual futures market since August 19.