The U.S. dollar fell Friday as investors continued shifting toward gold and Bitcoin amid growing concerns that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s efforts to contain long-term borrowing costs could further weaken the greenback.
The DXY dollar index fell to 98.6630, bringing its decline over the month to 2.43%. while fueling concerns that the greenback’s days of being the world’s reserve currency may be waning. The dollar’s weakness follows the Treasury Department’s decision to double its purchases of longer-dated government bonds, a move that initially triggered a selloff in the currency while boosting gold and Bitcoin in what some market participants dubbed the “debasement trade.”
The Treasury said Wednesday that it would increase the maximum size of its liquidity-support buyback operations from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation beginning Sept. 9 and cover longer-dated Treasury securities. Bessent subsequently said the purchases could exceed $4 billion per operation.
The intervention was designed to improve liquidity in the long-term Treasury market, but investors interpreted the move as a sign that Washington was increasingly concerned about rising borrowing costs tied to the federal debt. The announcement initially pushed the dollar lower while sending Bitcoin above $72,000 and boosting gold.
The simultaneous gains in gold and Bitcoin underscored the appeal of assets not directly tied to the U.S. government’s debt market. The Treasury market turmoil made non-interest-bearing assets such as gold and Bitcoin relatively more attractive.
The 10-year Treasury yield climbed back toward 4.7% Thursday, while the 30-year yield remained above 5%, as investors continued to worry about inflation and government borrowing.
The scale of the intervention was also small compared with the size of the government’s obligations. The national debt crossed $40 trillion Wednesday, while the federal deficit was expected to exceed $2 trillion.
(DCNF)