After a lengthy period of stagnation, Bitcoin experienced noticeable activity this week, with its price exceeding $95,000 at the time of reporting. This represented a significant weekly increase of 12%, driven by more favorable economic news and an overall perception that the worst of the tariff conflict may be behind us.
The CoinDesk 20, which monitors nearly 80% of the total crypto market capitalization, saw a rise of over 10% during the past five days.
In an interview with Sam Reynolds from CoinDesk, John D’Agostino of Coinbase Institutional attributed the recent rally to the involvement of institutional investors and sovereign funds accumulating Bitcoin. In contrast, retail investors have been pulling out of Bitcoin ETFs, according to him.
The support for Bitcoin investment vehicles remained strong among institutions. On Wednesday, Jack Mallers, the CEO of Strike, along with Brandon Lutnick from Cantor Fitzgerald, introduced Twenty One Capital, a new investment firm focused on Bitcoin, backed by Tether, Bitfinex, and SoftBank. This company is set to possess the third-largest corporate Bitcoin treasury with 42,000 BTC, as reported by Reynolds and Francisco Rodrigues.
There is growing evidence from options markets indicating that traders are prepared to hold onto Bitcoin during market fluctuations, which explains why Bitcoin remained relatively stable even as stocks and bonds faced declines in recent weeks. CoinDesk’s market expert, Omkar Godbole, reported on this phenomenon.
This week, Bitcoin ascended to become the fifth most valuable asset globally, eclipsing Google’s market capitalization for the very first time. Not bad for a technology that originated as a simple hobby among cypherpunks two decades ago.
In other updates, the launch of Zora’s much-anticipated token faced some challenges during its debut. Analysts suggested that traders are hesitant about “VC tokens” that exhibit relatively low liquidity. “The $ZORA launch illustrates a recurring problem in the Web3 landscape: overpromising and underdelivering,” stated Min Jung, a research analyst at Presto, while speaking with markets reporter Shaurya Malwa.
But as prices for essential crypto assets increase, it opens avenues for innovative Web3 concepts. For instance, this week, the popular British TV show Peaky Blinders launched a blockchain-based video game and a Web3 ecosystem. Furthermore, in a notable change from last year, there were numerous announcements related to gaming and crypto culture.
If you had to designate two standout players in the current market climate, Bitcoin and stablecoins would undoubtedly be the top contenders (a multitude of these is expected to emerge shortly). This week, Circle, the issuer of USDC, unveiled plans for a new global payments and remittances network (as reported by Ian Allison), alongside Coinbase’s announcement of free conversions between U.S. dollars and PayPal’s stablecoin, PYUSD.
Overall, it seems wise to consider accumulating Bitcoin while utilizing stablecoins for transactions, although this is not financial advice.
