Bitcoin's soft-inflation pop to $85,500 fades as bond yields refuse to fall

Bitcoin rose 0.4% to just above $83,700 as of Thursday Asian morning hours. A softer-than-expected U.S. inflation report had pushed it as high as $85,500 on Wednesday, and the gains faded as Treasury yields stayed near their highest levels since 2002.

HYPE led the majors, up 3% to about $89, and DOGE gained nearly 2% to just under 10 cents. Ether, BNB, TRX and ZEC each added less than 1%, and XRP was flat at $1.50. SOL was the laggard, slipping nearly 1% to just under $119, according to CoinDesk data.

"August's PCE report showed inflation cooling more than expected, with prices up 3.4% from a year earlier and 3.0% excluding food and energy, which has reduced the odds of another Federal Reserve rate increase in October and made December look like the more likely next move," Dan Khus, chief analyst at LVRG Research, said in an email to CoinDesk.

"Crypto markets took that as a relief signal, and bitcoin jumped back above $85,000 as bond yields slipped and investors became more willing to buy risk assets again," he added.

Late swings on Wall Street erased the gains. The 10-year Treasury yield traded around 5.28%, close to Wednesday's peak. The 30-year steadied at 5.62% after hitting its highest since 2002 during New York trading. Oil declined, which helped pause the bond selloff, and the dollar strengthened.

Tech carried the risk mood into Asia. Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.8% and S&P 500 futures rose 0.4%. Japan's Nikkei jumped 2.7% and South Korea's Kospi rose 1.2% after Micron Technology's upbeat forecast lifted chip stocks.

Alphabet gained 1.5% in extended trading as Google began rolling out Gemini 4 Argon, its new flagship AI model.

A soft inflation print on its own was not enough to keep bitcoin above $85,000 with the 10-year yield near 5.3%. A sustained drop in that yield is the move that would give the next rally room to hold.