Bitcoin (BTC) traded choppily during United States hours on Thursday as the yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to its highest level in nearly two decades. The leading cryptocurrency briefly slipped below $83,000 before struggling to reclaim $84,500, while Ondo Finance (ONDO) emerged as one of the day's top-performing altcoins.

Key points:

• Bitcoin briefly fell below $83,000 before stabilizing near $84,500 amid rising bond yields.
• Ondo's token reclaimed $0.50 for the first time since December 2025 as BlackRock-backed Ondo Intelligent Portfolios launched on Ethereum and BNB Chain.
• The US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 5.18%, its highest since July 2007, while the 30-year yield reached 5.46%.

US 10-year Treasury gains 70 basis points this month, hits 5.18%

The 10-year Treasury yield rose more than 4 basis points to 5.18% on Thursday, its highest level since July 2007, according to TradingView data. The 30-year yield hit 546%, reclaiming highs last seen in 2004. The benchmark 10-year rate has gained 70 basis points this month. Long-term Treasury yields serve as a reference for borrowing costs across the economy and a key input in how investors price riskier assets, which is why their return to levels last seen in the mid-2000s is being watched across both traditional and digital-asset markets.

The climb came on the same day the US Treasury was scheduled to buy back up to $6 billion in bonds maturing in roughly 20 to 30 years, part of an expanded program aimed at improving liquidity in long-dated debt markets.

International bond markets also weakened, while the Japanese yen (JPY) came under renewed pressure. Mohamed A. El-Erian, president of Queen's College Cambridge, wrote on X: “Flying under many radars for now, but probably not for long: The Japanese Yen has weakened back to 159 per U.S. dollar (CNBC chart), approaching the established FX intervention zone.”

He added: “This matters far beyond Japan for a key reason right now: Japanese foreign exchange intervention typically involves selling US securities to buy Yen, potentially adding yield pressures to an already sensitive Treasury market.”

Higher yields make government bonds more attractive and can weigh on non-yielding assets such as Bitcoin. Even so, BTC has extended its August rally, defying bearish predictions tied to Bitcoin's traditional four-year cycle. Near-term reference points for market participants include the results of the Treasury's expanded buyback operations and any sign of Japanese currency intervention.

ONDO token among top performers, reclaims $0.50

ONDO, the token of tokenized real-world asset (RWA) platform Ondo Finance, ranked among the top gainers over the past 24 hours and rose back to the psychological $0.50 level, according to CoinGecko data. The move returned the token to a level last traded in December 2025, despite the recent failure of the CLARITY Act to advance through a procedural vote in the US Senate.

The rally coincided with Thursday's launch of BlackRock-backed Ondo Intelligent Portfolios. While most RWA products focus on tokenizing individual stocks and commodities, the new offering allows non-US users to buy tokenized shares in diversified portfolios. The offering extends the tokenization sector beyond single-asset products toward diversified, model-driven structures, with the non-US availability underscoring the regulatory boundaries that still shape where such products can be distributed.

The tokens went live on Ethereum and BNB Chain, with settlement handled through CoW Protocol, CoW DAO said on X. The first three tokens track model portfolio strategies developed by BlackRock for Ondo: BLKHIon (High Income), BLKDIGon (Diversified Growth) and BLKGRWon (High Growth).