Bitcoin Surges Past $80,000 as Bond Yields Spike

Bitcoin surged past $80,000 on Friday as cryptocurrency equities rallied. This came despite broader markets stalling due to rising bond yields.

Kansas City Fed President Jeffrey Schmid delivered a hawkish signal, defending rate hikes against inflation above 3%.

Bond yields spiked in response: the 10-year Treasury note rose 7 basis points back to 5%, while the 2-year yield increased by 7 basis points to 4.75%. The 30-year climbed 4 basis points to 5.34%.

Energy prices offered a rare bit of relief, with West Texas Intermediate crude easing 0.4% to $101.50 a barrel and Brent slipping 0.5% to $104.26. However, natural gas moved the other way, adding 0.8% to $2.92 per MMBtu.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% to 7,621.16, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave back 222 points, or 0.4%, to 51,555.73. IBM was the heaviest weight on the blue-chip index, falling 3%. The Nasdaq 100 was the most resilient of the majors, hovering just below the flatline at 29,425.62.

Semiconductors bucked the trend, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF up 0.6% and equipment names like Lam Research Corp., Applied Materials Inc., and Micron Technology Inc. leading the charge.