The Bank of England committed to remove £368 billion of gilts (UK government bonds) held for monetary-policy purposes by September 2034. The amount is the portfolio remaining after £120 billion of longer-dated gilts was separated to back banknotes. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC, the Bank's rate-setting body) said the remaining stock will decline by an average £46 billion a year through maturities and £20 billion of annual active sales. The rate decision was separate: six MPC members kept Bank Rate at 3.75%, while Megan Greene, Catherine Mann and Huw Pill preferred a 4% increase. All nine supported the multi-year gilt reduction. Implementation starts with a pause in active-market auctions while the Bank reviews a possible arrangement involving HM Treasury and the Debt Management Office, with operational details due by April 2027 and the sales-to-Government model still subject to a final decision. Gilts will continue to mature. The planned £20 billion annual sales pace is close to the £21 billion sold in the previous 12 months, while average total runoff including maturities drops to £46 billion from £70 billion in the prior year. Reuters reported that 10-year gilt yields fell more than 7 basis points and 30-year yields nearly 10 basis points by early Thursday afternoon. The Bank estimates quantitative tightening (reducing central-bank bond holdings) contributed 20 to 30 basis points of an approximately 200-basis-point increase in long-term gilt term premia since 2022, with global uncertainty, heavy sovereign issuance and structural changes in UK demand accounting for most of the rise. The implications for Bitcoin remain uncertain: IMF research links US monetary tightening to weakness in a common crypto-market factor, but that evidence concerns US shocks rather than the BOE plan. Bitcoin traded near $78,000 on CryptoSlate on Friday, with Coinbase showing a similar level, although both were rolling snapshots that could not isolate a reaction to Thursday's announcement. The decision sets up a long-run test of whether predictable central-bank balance-sheet withdrawal can pressure global yields and risk appetite enough to affect Bitcoin, even as the auction pause and lower gilt yields produced a comparatively mild initial response.