What High Bond Rates Mean for Bitcoin

Global bond yields have hit heights not observed since July 2008. Bitcoin was not in existence at that time.

The asset has not experienced trading at such elevated borrowing costs before, and it is currently not reaping any benefits from this situation.

In the years following Bitcoin's introduction, bond yields around the world reached levels not seen since. May 2026 saw the highest yield on the Bloomberg index of long-term government bonds since July 2008.

In October, the Bitcoin whitepaper was published. January 3, 2009, was the creation date of the original block. A newspaper headline about a second bank rescue was used by Satoshi Nakamoto to mark that block six months after the peak.

Depletion of assets is currently the only way to fix a government's crumbling finances.

This cycle deviates significantly from the norm. While Bitcoin was in its first week on the market, the yield on the US 10-year Treasury was 2.46%. The current yield is 4.69%. At that time, the 30-year yield was 2.83%. On August 13, the same bond, with a yield of 5.216% – the highest rate since 2001 – was sold by the Treasury for $25 billion.

Very little interest. A higher-than-usual volume was taken in by dealers.

On August 14, the real yield - the return on a bond after inflation is taken into consideration - reached 2.41%. Back in 2016, it produced 1.77%.