Bitcoin Is Suddenly a Hedge Again, VanEck Says: What Changed? | Market Cryptocurrency Market News

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MarketCryptocurrency Market NewsBitcoin (BTC) NewsUS Crypto News
Aug 20, 2026
2min read
byDarryn Pollock
forBeInCrypto

Bitcoin rallied to $72,757 after the US Treasury doubled its long-dated bond buyback ceiling from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation, compressing yields and triggering roughly $3 billion in forced short liquidations that amplified a short-squeeze. VanEck’s Matthew Sigel says the move reflects Bitcoin acting as a hedge against dollar weakness and US fiscal policy rather than CLARITY Act optimism, but academic evidence of strong equity correlation during 2020 and 2022 keeps the hedge-versus-risk-on dynamic unresolved for crypto markets and adoption.

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In Brief

• Bitcoin climbed to $72,757 after the US Treasury expanded its bond buyback program.
• VanEck’s Matthew Sigel calls Bitcoin a hedge against dollar weakness, not CLARITY Act hype.
• Bitcoin has often traded as a risk asset correlated with stocks, not a safe haven.

Bitcoin (BTC) is rallying again, and VanEck’s Matthew Sigel says it is finally acting like the hedge it was built to be.

Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, ties the move to fears over US fiscal policy rather than pending crypto legislation.

All Eyes on the US Treasury

The US Treasury doubled its long-dated bond buyback ceiling, from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation. The move compressed yields and fed a broader risk-on rally tied to the Treasury’s bond buyback expansion.

Roughly $3 billion in forced short liquidations amplified the move. bitcoin climbed to $72,757, part of what one report called Bitcoin’s short squeeze cascade.

Sigel downplays the CLARITY Act, the crypto market structure bill working through Congress, as the driver. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has voiced optimism the bill clears 60 Senate votes, though prediction markets price a slim chance it becomes law this year, a gap Sigel says explains why the rally isn’t about CLARITY Act’s Senate odds.

“Bitcoin is one of the best hedges you can find on that dynamic.”

— Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Asset Research, VanEck

That hedge framing carries a mixed record

Bitcoin’s correlation with US equities spiked, not fell, during the 2020 COVID crash and the 2022 rate-hiking cycle. Academic research shows that pattern, not decoupling, is what typically happens under market stress.

Bitcoin has soared to above $70,000. Image

That tension traces back to Bitcoin’s origin. Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 whitepaper proposed Bitcoin as a fixed-supply alternative to a financial system reliant on central bank money printing.

Sigel’s dollar-debasement argument revives that same case, just aimed at Treasury debt management instead of the printing press directly.

Whether Bitcoin keeps behaving like that hedge, or snaps back into a risk-on trade if equities wobble, will show which version of the story markets are actually pricing.

Source: cryptorank.io