Market News

BY Suvashree Ghosh and Sidhartha Shukla

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin surpassed $111,000 for the first time, with traders increasingly bullish on the prospects of the original cryptocurrency amid mounting institutional demand.

Bitcoin climbed as much as 3.3% on Thursday to hit a record of $111,878, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Smaller tokens also rose, with second-ranked Ether at one point up about 5.5%.

A wave of optimism is buoying Bitcoin after the advancement of a key stablecoin bill in the US senate fueled hopes of greater regulatory clarity for digital-asset firms under President Donald Trump, who is avowedly pro-crypto. Surging demand from Michael Saylor’s Strategy — which has stockpiled over $50 billion worth of Bitcoin — and a growing list of token hoarders is another driving force behind the rally.

“It has been a slow motion grind into new all-time highs,” said Joshua Lim, global co-head of markets at FalconX Ltd. “There’s no shortage of demand for BTC from SPAC and PIPE deals, which is manifesting in the premium on Coinbase spot prices.”

Such buyers include a flurry of obscure small-cap companies and public firms newly formed by crypto heavyweights which are financing their purchases by offering anything from convertible bonds to preferred stocks.

An affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald LP is working with stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings SA and SoftBank Group to launch Twenty One Capital Inc., a company that emulates Strategy’s business model. A subsidiary of Strive Enterprises Inc. co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy is merging with Nasdaq-listed Asset Entities Inc. to form a Bitcoin treasury company.

“Unlike previous cycles, this rally is not momentum-driven alone,” said Julia Zhou, COO of crypto market maker Caladan. “It is quantitatively underpinned by measurable, persistent demand and supply dislocations.”

Bitcoin’s outperformance relative to smaller cryptocurrencies is widening. An index that tracks so-called altcoins is down about 40% year-to-date, while Bitcoin is up 17% so far in 2025.

A group of 12 US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have drawn strong inflows, with investors pouring in about $4.2 billion so far in May. In options markets, traders built eye-catching Bitcoin positions earlier this week with the $110,000, $120,000 and $300,000 calls expiring on June 27 logging the most open interest — or number of outstanding contracts — on Deribit, the derivatives exchange.

Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG, said in a note that the fresh record shows that Bitcoin’s steep decline from a previous high set on Jan. 20 to below $75,000 in April was “a correction within a bull market.”

“A sustained break above $110,000 is needed to trigger the next leg higher towards $125,000,” he added.

Bitcoin’s latest milestone comes as Trump prepares to meet with the biggest holders of his memecoin at a dinner at his golf club just outside Washington on Thursday. The event has raised concerns among ethics experts, who argue that it offers access through transactions that directly benefit the president, and has sparked criticism over potential conflicts of interest.

Such events “highlight crypto’s increasing cultural visibility, though they have not had a measurable impact on market dynamics at this stage,” said Yuan Rong Tan, a trader at QCP Capital.