Why bitcoin prices are suddenly rallying big-time

The bitcoin bulls are back.

Over the last 48 hours, the price of bitcoin is up about 18% to more than $77,600 as of the time of this writing. Bitcoin prices hadn't traded above the $70,000 level since late May prior to this latest push, per Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data.

"The strong trigger in bitcoin was driven by Treasury's move to buyback bonds at the longer end of the yield curve. We are not macro experts, but we do know bitcoin historically has had a positive reaction to liquidity expansion. And this year's apathy towards bitcoin and crypto markets was a combination of tighter markets post Iran conflict, with rising risks of inflation and a very strong AI/semis trade pulling all the liquidity away," explained Bernstein strategist Gautam Chhugani in a note out today.

The U.S. Treasury surprised financial markets this week by announcing it will double the maximum size of its long-term bond buyback operations from $2 billion to $4 billion per session. This intervention directly targets the 10-year, 20-year, and 30-year Treasury sectors after benchmark yields spiked to 20-year highs due to nagging inflation and war-driven energy price pressures.