Bitcoin Price Rising With Record $1.2 Trillion Margin Debt, Unwinding Could Already Be Here

Bitcoin’s bull run is saddled with a record $1.279 trillion in margin debt, and the unwind could come without warning.

Bitcoin’s next phase is being shaped by record high U.S. market leverage, recessionary research data, and an expanded Treasury buyback program aimed at improving bond market health rather than monetary easing.

This information appears in FINRA margin statistics, an Associated Press report on consumer confidence, and the Treasury Department’s Feb. 4 quarterly refund statement.

According to the Kobeisi Letter post, securities margin borrowings jumped to about $53 billion in January.

The move was another step in a series of monthly increases and was framed as a setup where deleveraging across assets could move faster than the spot-only narrative.

The underlying FINRA dataset shows “customer securities margin account debit balances” in January 2026 as 1,279,042 (millions of dollars), or approximately $1,279 billion.

This is an increase from 1,225,597 (millions of dollars), or approximately $1,226 billion, in December 2025, and a month-over-month change of 53,445 (millions of dollars), or approximately $53,445 million, according to FINRA margin statistics.

In the case of Bitcoin, the practical question is not whether the borrowing is “crypto leverage” but rather that a larger stock of system leverage compresses volatility during uptrends and potentially allows for rapid re-pricing when risk limits tighten.

In times of stress, correlations across the entire liquidity market often converge, and even if cryptocurrency funding is stable, BTC may fall into a forced sale limit.

As margin borrowing accelerates, its risk channels expand.

Liquidation and re-hedging flows could be synchronized across equities, interest rates, and high-beta assets, reducing risk elsewhere and potentially lowering the price of BTC.

Building leverage also conflicts with the policy risk calendar. In episodes like the current tariff/legal shift, markets assess both the magnitude of the shock and the timing of the next headline.

With a 150-day window under Section 122-style powers (and the accompanying litigation/lobbying drumbeat), uncertainty can be concentrated over a narrow range of dates, and concentrated uncertainty is where the margin system tends to change prices the fastest.

If U.S. Treasury yields fall due to inflation risks and the dollar tightens in tandem, the leveraged book gross could decline, with broader risks for BTC. If growth concern pricing drives yields lower, BTC can catch a liquidity bid later, but the initial move is often a correlation rather than a narrative.

Signs of economic recession complicate the risk landscape

Macro inputs do not provide a clear counterweight.

According to a syndicated release on the COMTEX/PR Newswire, the Conference Board’s December 2025 Economic Leading Index decreased by 0.2% to 97.6 (2016=100).

According to the same release, the Conference Board also explained that the LEI heralds the turning point in the business cycle by about seven months.

Separately, the Conference Board’s Consumer Expectations Index was 72 in February 2026, the 13th consecutive month below 80.

The report states that 80 is an indicator of an upcoming recession.

The LEI fell again in January to a 12-year low, marking an 18% drawdown from its 2021 peak, according to a post by Global Markets Investor.

This characterization maintains the resulting “growth fear” sector on traders’ dashboards, even though risk assets are still sensitive to changes in liquidity and interest rate volatility.

Government bond buybacks, collateral chains, and BTC macro beta

The U.S. Treasury repurchase program is another part of this setup, as U.S. Treasuries are at the center of the collateral chain, which is critical to funding conditions.

These funding conditions could spill over into the same macro-driven regime in which Bitcoin tends to trade in tandem with interest rate fluctuations and broader risk appetite.

The Treasury Department said in its Feb. 4 quarterly repayment report that it expects up to $38 billion in “liquidity support” buybacks across off-the-run buckets and up to $75 billion in “cash management” buybacks in buckets of one month to two years in the next quarter.

In its statement, the Treasury Department also announced plans to move share buyback operations to the New York Fed’s FedTrade Plus platform and conduct small test buybacks.

It added that the test “should not be seen in any way as a harbinger or indication of pending policy changes.”

The Treasury Department’s share buyback rules are also undergoing a formal update cycle, with a notice of proposed rulemaking scheduled for January 14, 2026, and a comment deadline of February 13, 2026, listed on TreasuryDirect.

The Treasury Department said it expects a final rule to be developed in the first half of 2026.

Operationally, the program is active enough to show up in weekly tallies.

Total buybacks reached $6 billion in the first week of February alone, before jumping to $18.5 billion in the second half of the month.

Since its inception, the Ministry of Finance has positioned share buybacks as a tool for market functioning.

As long ago as April 2025, in its quarterly refund report, the Treasury Department said the program, launched in May 2024, had been “well received” and had “increased the resilience of the Treasury market.”

In the case of BTC, this is primarily relevant through the piping of tail risk. A smoother Treasury microstructure makes cash tightness less likely to become a rapid derisking event between assets.

However, Treasury buybacks do not themselves create bank reserves like asset purchases by central banks.

Three paths for BTC as leverage and policy piping evolve

In summary, the remaining cycle map can be framed over several paths that depend on the same input.

• On a continuation trend, margin borrowing continues to rise from its all-time high in January 2026, with momentum maintained across liquidity risks. According to FINRA’s margin data set, the unwind channel widens depending on leveraged stocks, which could increase the downside convexity while BTC’s upside could remain intact.
• In the base case “unstable” path, growth and interest rate expectations remain unstable due to weak leading indicators and a low expectations index. BTC is trading in a pattern of sharp drawdowns and gains due to macro data corrections, supported by LEI measurements and lead times in December 2025 and expected index levels in February 2026.
• In the stress path, an adverse shock collides with an increase in leverage, driving unwinding among assets. BTC tends to behave as a liquidity beta during acute periods, and Treasury buybacks may only alleviate friction in the Treasury market at the last minute, within the operational and policy boundaries that Treasury outlined in its Feb. 4 statement.

The next checkpoint is scheduled. Margin statistics are updated in the third week of the month following the base month from FINRA and the final pre-summer Treasury repurchase rules.

Bitcoin has already started to regain some of its recent gains, bouncing off the long-term support-turned-resistance near $69,200 and poised to test the $65,400 support soon.

crypto slate Bitcoin treasury companies report in detail how reflexivity and funding stress feeds back into BTC price movements during drawdowns.

These are more signals of recession vulnerability than perfect predictions, and are even more important when the system’s leverage is already at record levels.