Bitcoin Soars to a New All-Time High. How a Critical Week for Crypto Can Keep the Rally Going — or Halt It. — Barrons.com

By Elsa OhlenBitcoin price soared past $120,000 for the first time early Monday.The crypto continued its bull run at the start of what has been coined "Crypto Week. Three key bills that important for the sector are making their way through Congress over the next five days.The price of the world's largest cryptocurrency was up 2.7% to $121,624 early Monday, according to CoinDesk data. It had reached as high as $122,873 a few hours earlier.The run, which broke out in the middle of last week, is partly fueled by macroeconomic tailwinds such as expectations of an interest-rate cut later this year, according to analysts."This has capped further dollar strength and improved the appeal of dollar-denominated assets like Bitcoin," Dilin Wu at Pepperstone said Friday.Legislation passing through the House of Representatives will further strengthen investors' bet on digital currencies. The bills aim to provide structure to the crypto sector if passed: the Genius Act to regulate stablecoins; the Clarity Act to establish a regulatory framework for cryptos; and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, which would ban the Federal Reserve banks from issuing central bank digital currencies to individuals."Historically, when lawmakers advance industry-backed frameworks, institutional sentiment strengthens," Wu said. "We expect capital that was previously sidelined due to regulatory uncertainty to re-enter, particularly into staking and token projects."Crypto-linked stocks were also rising in premarket trading Monday. Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, and crypto exchange Coinbase Global rose 2.7% and 1.7%, respectively.MicroStrategy, which does business as Strategy, announced Monday morning that it had resumed buying Bitcoin after a week's pause. In the previous week, the company bought 4,225 coins for an average price of $111,827.Cryptos remain volatile assets so investors shouldn't rule out sharp pullbacks following such big gains.The crypto fear and greed index currently stands at 70, up from around 50 last week. The index ranges between 0 to 100, with higher levels indicating that the market could be overheated. A figure of 70 suggests the market is "due for a correction," Shivam Thakral, CEO of digital asset exchange BuyUcoin, noted Monday.Among other cryptocurrencies, Ether was up 1.8% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data, XRP rose 4.3% and Solana gained 2.5%.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.