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Key Takeaways
- XRP climbed 51% to $1.50 this week, outpacing Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana, driven partly by nearly $2 billion in short liquidations
- The rally follows a Treasury announcement to buy back $4 billion or more in long-duration bonds, which traders read as a possible step toward yield curve control
- Despite the surge, XRP remains far below its 2025 record high of $3.65, having recovered only about 20% of its prior decline
XRP climbed 51% since Monday to $1.50, its strongest weekly performance in nearly two years. The rally follows a U.S. Treasury bond buyback announcement that has fueled speculation policymakers could eventually move toward yield curve control.
XRP outpaces Bitcoin, Ether and Solana this week
XRP’s gain this week beat Bitcoin, Ether and Solana by a wide margin. Bitcoin traded near $77,242 and gained 22% over the same period. Ether rose 30% to $2,444, while Solana added 28%.
The rally marks a sharp reversal for XRP, which had lagged the broader crypto market’s earlier bounce through much of August. Traders had positioned heavily against the token before the move, and that positioning unwound fast once prices turned higher.
Nearly $2 billion in short futures positions tied to XRP were liquidated this week, according to data from Coinglass. The scale of the squeeze amplified the price move as short sellers were forced to buy back positions to cover losses.
Treasury bond buyback plan triggers the rally
The move across crypto markets began early this week after the U.S. Treasury said it would buy back $4 billion or more of its own long-duration bonds, maturities of 10 to 30 years, on multiple occasions between Sept. 9 and Nov. 4. The figure doubles the department’s previous $2 billion cap on such purchases.
Treasury officials have described the program as a liquidity-management operation within the U.S. government bond market. The timing, coming as long-duration yields hit their highest levels since 2007 earlier this week, has led traders to interpret the move as an attempt to cap rising yields rather than a routine technical adjustment.
That interpretation, not an official Treasury statement, is driving the yield curve control speculation. The department has not described the buyback program as a step toward yield curve control.
What yield curve control would mean if adopted
Yield curve control is a monetary policy tool in which a central bank sets a ceiling on yields for a specific bond maturity, often the 10-year note, and commits to buying whatever quantity of bonds is needed to defend that ceiling.
Both the Bank of Japan and the United States have used versions of the policy in the past, and both instances coincided with increased risk-taking in financial markets.
The Treasury’s buyback announcement does not itself constitute yield curve control. It is a bond-purchase program with a defined schedule and a cap, run by the Treasury rather than the Federal Reserve. Traders are treating it as a possible precursor, but that remains a market interpretation rather than a confirmed policy shift.
Rising long-duration yields pose a problem for the federal government’s debt-servicing costs and can discourage risk-taking in equity and crypto markets.
A ceiling on those yields, if one were to materialize through the Federal Reserve or Treasury action, would tend to support higher-risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
XRP remains well below its 2025 record despite the rally
Even after this week’s advance, XRP has recovered only about 20% of the decline it suffered from its record high of $3.65 in July 2025 to just under $1 a week ago. The token remains far from establishing a durable bullish trend on that basis.
The rally has been driven primarily by short-position liquidations and macro speculation rather than a confirmed shift in Treasury or Federal Reserve policy. Traders will look to upcoming Treasury communications and bond auction results between now and Sept. 9 for signals on whether the buyback program expands further or remains capped at current levels.
