Bitcoin Price Surges Into Uncharted Territory. The Next Catalysts for the Crypto. — Barrons.com
By Elsa OhlenBitcoin price topped its all-time high and sailed past $111,000 overnight, fueled by favorable macro conditions, regulatory developments and institutional demand for digital assets.Bitcoin is up 3.6% over the last 24 hours to last trade at $111,362, according to CoinDesk data. The world's largest cryptocurrency hit $111,875 overnight and, while paring some of those gains since, is still on an upward trend.Given the current context surrounding Bitcoin, the price could reach as high as $130,000 by the end of this year, Arthur Azizov at B2 Ventures said Thursday. However, he added that a correction could come along at some point. "Healthy growth usually requires a meaningful correction, which we haven't seen in several years now."Bitcoin forecasts are always difficult but they're especially tough right now given there's no historical precedent at this price.The coin's rise toward fresh records came as a stablecoin bill passed a procedural vote in the Senate — a key hurdle — Monday. On Tuesday, the state of Texas voted to approve a Bitcoin reserve bill, according to local media.Macroeconomic events also played a part. An agreement between the U.S. and China to pause the bulk of tariffs on each other's goods between had the broader market cheering earlier this month, including many cryptos. A weakening dollar also looks to have increased appetite for Bitcoin as an alternative store of value.Bitcoin's record has smaller cryptocurrencies on the rise as well, with Ether up 4.6%, XRP rising 3.3% and Solana jumping 6.3%.Cardano and Binance Coin rose about 5% each while memecoin Dogecoin was up 5.6%, according to CoinDesk.As always with volatile risk assets like cryptos, there are risks. An increase in geopolitical uncertainties or tightening of U.S. monetary policy could hamper the rally.In the short term, upcoming U.S. economic data such as GDP and PCE inflation figures — both next week — will be crucial in gauging the sustainability of this uptrend, noted XS.com market analyst Linh Tran.Write to Elsa Ohlen at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.