liveUpdated 9 minutes agoThe Japanese yen extended its rally against the greenback, briefly strengthening past 153 per dollar.Brent Crude Oil (CoinDesk)All eyes on coming buyback announcementThere’s not necessarily a prescribed time, but the U.S. Treasury typically makes funding announcements on Wednesdays at 11 am ET.This week’s announcement is of particular note, given Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s recent (failed, so far) attempts at jawboning long-term interest rates lower.Recall that Treasury lit a fire under bitcoin three weeks ago by announcing it would double or more the size of long-end bond buybacks to $4 billion or more. The 30-year and 10-year Treasury yields are higher today than prior to that announcement, so score one for the markets.Chatter is that Bessent and team will announce buybacks in the $5 billion to $6 billion range later this morning. Being a veteran hedge funder, Bessent might be cooking up an even bigger number to try to shock markets.Bitcoin is on the rise ahead of the announcement, up 1.5% over the past 24 hours at $79,600.Tech futures slip and AI infrastructure stocks regain momentumTech futures edged lower in Wednesday pre-market trading as Brent crude hit $100 a barrel for the first time since July. U.S. bonds also declined, pushing the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield above 4.8%. The Japanese yen continued to strengthen, although it pulled back slightly to 153.5 against the dollar.Bitcoin remained near $79,000, while Strategy (MSTR) gained more than 2% in pre-market trading.Meanwhile, momentum returned to neocloud companies and former bitcoin miners that have pivoted towards AI infrastructure. Nebius (NBIS), Hut 8 (HUT) and CoreWeave (CRWV) saw gains of 6%-12%. A rotation appears to be emerging again, with speculative capital moving back into AI-related stocks when bitcoin and crypto markets stagnate or decline, and shifting towards crypto when digital assets regain momentum.Treasury Secretary Bessent warns traders on Yen "I am the house now"Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has doubled down on efforts to support the Japanese yen, saying: “I am the house now, so when we intervene with the Japanese yen, I have pretty good insight into what the Bank of Japan and Japanese policymakers are going to do.”His comments follow coordinated foreign exchange intervention by the U.S. and Japan in early August.The yen has continued to strengthen against the U.S. dollar, with USD/JPY falling to around 153. The Japanese currency has now rallied approximately 7% over the past two months.SideSwap returns a further 4 BTC, wallet now holds 3,601 BTCSideSwap has returned the 4 BTC in fees it collected from processing the hacker's 4,000 BTC peg-out back to the Liquid Federation wallet, which now holds 3,601.42 BTC ($286M). Network restoration is still ongoing, according to Samson Mow.ATOM, PONS and LIT surge over 10% as BTC bounces toward $80,000The altcoin market is a sea of green, with several tokens rising 10% or more in 24 hours as market leader bitcoin jumps to $79,500.As of this writing, ATOM and PON were up 18% and 13%, respectively, followed by LIT, DOT, and ZEC, each up 10%, according to CoinDesk data.Investors have been rotating money into altcoins lately. That’s evident in bitcoin’s dominance falling to 59.4% from 60.4% in less than a week.Brent crude oil hits $100 a barrel for first time since JulyBrent crude has climbed to $100 a barrel for the first time since July and is now 64% higher year-to-date, as the war in the Middle East continues following the outbreak of conflict in late February. WTI crude has also risen above $94 a barrel, reaching its highest level since early June.Oil is not the only energy product surging. New York Harbor ULSD futures, a benchmark diesel contract, has hit a record high of $4.67 a gallon, gaining a further 2% over the past 24 hours and adding to inflationary pressure across the US economy.Grayscale's GBTC shed $66 million as XRP funds drew inflowsXRP ETFs pulled in nearly $2 million on Tuesday, the only meaningful inflow anywhere in the U.S. crypto ETF market, according to SoSoValue. The five products now carry $1.69 billion in cumulative inflows and $173 million over the past 30 days.Everything larger went the other way, and Grayscale did most of the damage. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost about $47 million, with GBTC alone accounting for $66 million of redemptions. BlackRock's IBIT, Bitwise's BITB, Ark and 21Shares' ARKB and Morgan Stanley's MSBT added roughly $41 million between them.The ether side ran the same way. Grayscale's two products shed a combined $34 million while Fidelity's FETH took $10 million, leaving the complex down about $24 million. Every other ether fund printed zero. Hyperliquid ETFs lost $13 million and solana under $1 million.Bitcoin ETF net assets closed at $99.52 billion, back under the $100 billion line they crossed on Sept. 3.GBTC charges 1.50% against IBIT's 0.25%. Watch whether those redemptions keep outpacing inflows elsewhere, because that fee gap has driven the split all year.12345678910