Bitcoin Sinks After Bessent Says U.S. won’t Tell Banks to Bail Out Crypto

Bitcoin fell below $73,000 per token at one point late last week, extending losses from earlier in the session after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US government would not bail out the cryptocurrency, Ines Ferré and Grace O’Donnell reported for Yahoo Finance.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency is down 17 percent year to date.

During a heated exchange at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, Bessent was asked whether the US Treasury had the authority to buy bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

“I do not have the authority to do that, and as chair of FSOC, I do not have that authority,” Bessent said.

The decline was also fueled by broader selling pressure in markets and a warning from investor Michael Burry that a sustained drop in bitcoin’s price could “set in motion a death spiral leading to massive value destruction.”

“Bitcoin has been exposed as a purely speculative asset and is not the debasement-trade hedge that gold and other precious metals are,” Burry, who rose to prominence after predicting the 2008 financial crisis, wrote in his Substack.

The move added to bitcoin’s recent rout. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is down 17 percent year to date.

Bitcoin dropped sharply last weekend, marking its fourth straight month of losses.

The decline coincided with President Trump’s announcement last Friday selecting Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve when Jerome Powell’s term ends in May, a nomination markets view as hawkish.