Bitcoin surged past the $102,000-mark for the first time since January, buoyed by growing optimism around U.S. trade negotiations, Coinbase’s COIN Deribit Acquisition, and soaring institutional interest. Bitcoin is up over 7% for the week as Trump pushed for trade deals.
Bitcoin-based exchange-trade funds (ETFs) like Wisdomtree Bitcoin Fund BTCW, Coinshares Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund BRRR, Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund FBTC, iShares Bitcoin Trust IBIT, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF GBTC and Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF BTCO have been hovering around a three-month high.
Let’s delve a little deeper.
President Trump’s announcement of a new trade agreement with the UK and his upbeat comments on future negotiations with China spread cheers around the investing world and the risk-on sentiments.
Trump introduced a new US-UK trade deal on Thursday, describing it as a major step toward increased market access, worth billions of dollars, for American products, especially in agriculture. The agreement includes expanded opportunities for U.S. exports of beef, ethanol and other farm goods.
Secretary Bessent stated that the upcoming discussions would focus on de-escalating tensions. The news was enough to boost market sentiment across risk assets, including Bitcoin.
Boosting optimism further, Coinbase COIN announced its $2.9 billion acquisition of crypto options exchange Deribit. The deal was viewed as a vote of confidence in the crypto sector and helped push Bitcoin higher.
Meanwhile, Coinbase came up with quarterly earnings of $1.94 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.85. The company posted revenues of $2.03 billion in the quarter, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.12%.
Bitcoin had previously dropped to $75,000 following Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, which shocked markets. However, the asset has rebounded sharply as risk-on sentiment improved and equity markets stabilized.
Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick, who previously forecast Bitcoin hitting $120,000 in Q2, now says that target might be too low, citing a surge in institutional inflows and capital reallocation away from U.S. assets, as quoted on CNBC.
Kendrick noted the evolving narrative around Bitcoin. Once linked to risky assets and later seen as a strategic hedge, Bitcoin is now primarily driven by the sheer volume of inflows. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs alone have seen $5.3 billion in inflows over the last three weeks.
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