Bitcoin Climbs Above $84,000 but Rising Treasury Yields Cap Gains

Bitcoin pushed higher on Thursday, trading above $84,000 and building on substantial gains from the third quarter. However, the rally faces significant headwinds from surging U.S. Treasury yields, which are weighing on risk assets as markets anticipate further monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve.

Market Weighs Inflation Data Against Rising Yields

As of 02:21 ET (06:21 GMT), Bitcoin was trading up 1.5% at $84,307.1, according to Investing.com data. The move follows a brief surge to as high as $85,600 on Wednesday after the U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, a key inflation gauge, came in slightly below expectations.

Softer inflation readings can reduce expectations for future interest rate hikes, a scenario that is typically bullish for assets like cryptocurrencies. However, the gains were capped as U.S. Treasury yields climbed to fresh multi-year highs. Rising yields on government bonds increase the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like Bitcoin and often signal investor concerns about a hawkish central bank.

Investors are now looking ahead to Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for further clues on the health of the labor market and the Fed's potential policy path.

Altcoins Extend Strong Q3 Performance

The broader cryptocurrency market also saw gains, with several major altcoins extending a period of outperformance against Bitcoin. Over the past three months, many alternative tokens have logged substantial returns, driven by factors including optimism over friendlier U.S. regulations.

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Key altcoin movements on Thursday include:

• Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, rose 2% to $2,714.83 after surging approximately 70% in the third quarter.
• XRP added 0.8%.
• Solana (SOL) climbed 0.9%.
• Cardano (ADA) jumped 4.2%.

Major Payments Firms Back New Stablecoin

In a significant industry development, a new stablecoin named OpenUSD (USD), backed by payments giants Visa and Mastercard, went live on Wednesday, according to a report from Coindesk. Other prominent backers include Stripe and the crypto exchange Coinbase.

The stablecoin launched on several blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, and Coinbase's Base network. The project is reportedly targeting use cases in banking, cross-border payments, and institutional trading.