Key Insights:
- The latest Bitcoin news shows a Greenland-linked standoff could speed up a shift from the U.S. Treasury into Bitcoin.
- If Treasurys stop looking like the world’s safe haven, some investors may start hunting for a different store of value.
- By the end of November 2025, the TIC data attributed sizable Treasury positions to several major European reporting and custody hubs.
Bitcoin news turned bullish as reports suggest that the US Treasury could be heading into a fresh stress test. Europe weighing a blunt new pressure point in a Greenland-linked dispute with Washington has fueled the optimism.
The idea, now being floated in political circles, is to use America’s bond market as leverage by threatening to unload a large slice of EU-held U.S. government debt.
That matters because this is not just about the size of foreign holdings. It is about speed. If Europe tried to move even a portion of that money in a short window, the market would have to absorb a sudden surge of supply. In that kind of rush, prices usually fall and yields jump.
Next, the shock would not stay inside the bond market. Higher Treasury yields don’t stay confined to the bond market for long. They ripple through the U.S. economy, pushing up borrowing costs, tightening credit, and even tugging the dollar around as investors quickly reprice risk.
And the impact doesn’t stop there. When liquidity gets squeezed and funding becomes more expensive, crypto can feel the pressure too.
When liquidity gets squeezed, speculative assets often feel it first. Still, if Treasurys stop looking like the world’s safe haven, some investors may start hunting for a different store of value.
In that scenario, Bitcoin could attract fresh demand, not because risk appetite is back, but because confidence in the dollar’s safety took a hit.
Bitcoin News: Greenland Standoff May Shift Focus to Bitcoin
As per Bitcoin news, the Financial Times has pointed to Greenland as a realistic trigger for fresh friction between Washington and Europe.
In that context, the paper suggested that the U.S. Treasury could end up on the list of possible countermeasures.
That angle shifts the real story away from a loud headline like Europe sells Treasurys. Instead, it puts the spotlight on the practical details.
How fast could selling happen? Who would move first? And how much could markets absorb before yields react?
Recent U.S. Treasury Data Helps Explain WhyThis Matters
The Treasury’s TIC report, using Table 5, put foreign holdings of the U.S. Treasury at about $9.355 trillion at the end of November 2025. Of that, roughly $3.922 trillion fell under foreign official holders.
That’s a deep enough pocket of money to matter. Even small moves can nudge rates, and the impact grows fast if several players act together or move quickly.
But before anyone jumps to big conclusions, there’s a basic problem, which has made headlines in the Bitcoin news column. You first have to pin down who actually owns what.
The TIC country breakdown only captures securities reported by the U.S.-based custodians and broker-dealers. The Treasury also warns that bonds held in overseas custody accounts might not be linked to the real end owners.
As a result, the country table does not give a clean, exact read of who ultimately controls each slice of Treasurys. That caveat matters. It makes it far harder to argue that Europe, as one unified bloc, could decide to dump a specific dollar amount on cue.
Bitcoin News: European Custody Hubs Hold U.S. Treasurys for Non-European Investors
Some Treasury holdings linked to Europe can show up under non-EU country lines. At the same time, European custody centers can hold Treasurys on behalf of investors who are not European at all.
Because of that, the market’s true ability to sell is not the same thing as the amount that gets labeled as European in the data. In practice, leaders can lean on official portfolios far more easily than they can steer private money parked in custody accounts.
Even so, the TIC report can still be useful if it is described the right way. It offers a solid reference set for custody-based attribution, not a clean scoreboard of who in the EU truly owns what.
By the end of November 2025, the TIC data attributed sizable Treasury positions to several major European reporting and custody hubs.
Belgium accounted for about $481.0 billion in Treasurys, with Luxembourg close behind at $425.6 billion. France came in at around $376.1 billion, Ireland at $340.3 billion, and Germany at $109.8 billion. Put together, those five lines add up to roughly $1.733 trillion.
Still, the label matters. Used correctly, that $1.73 trillion figure serves as a practical upper-bound reference for large EU-linked reporting and custody jurisdictions.
It does not confirm the true Treasury ownership of the full EU-27 at the beneficial-owner level.
The Difference Between EU Reporting and EU Ownership
With the ongoing volatility in the crypto market and Bitcoin price, investors are keeping a close track of the macro developments.
As per the latest reports, the official-sector holdings add another complication, because the word official does not always mean the same thing across datasets. In the TIC reports, official refers to a reporting classification.
Meanwhile, the Fed’s custody figures track a different slice of the market, namely Treasurys that foreign official institutions keep in custody at Federal Reserve Banks.
In its international summary data, the Federal Reserve reported that foreign official Treasury securities held in Fed custody stood at about $2.74589 trillion in November 2025, on a preliminary basis.
That number is important for context. It is location-based, so it naturally comes in below the broader TIC foreign official total of $3.922 trillion reported at the end of November.
If the Greenland dispute ever spilled into the bond market as per recent Bitcoin news, it would likely happen in steps. Policymakers would signal first, then portfolios would start to shift. It would not look like one dramatic headline announcing a forced fire sale.
More likely, the groundwork would be built over weeks, possibly months. Tensions would harden in public. At the same time, European officials would begin talking about financial options as risk management, not retaliation.
That approach fits the way the Financial Times framed the issue. In that telling, Treasurys would not be the first move.
They would sit in the background as potential leverage, ready to be mentioned louder if the standoff escalates.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2026/01/22/bitcoin-news-greenland-tensions-put-1-7t-treasury-at-risk-fueling-a-btc-rotation/
