Bitcoin tops $110,000: Why the milestones keep coming

By Jules Rimmer"No one has ever lost money buying bitcoin."While bitcoin (BTCUSD) evangelist Michael Saylor's claim may not be strictly true, the inexorable rise of the cryptocurrency continues and the milestones keep coming. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of $111,000 in overnight trading Thursday, taking its rally in 2025 past 18%.Although its gains fall short of those registered by gold, up 26% so far in 2025, its performance far outstrips that of the S&P 500, and its growing emergence as a legitimate asset and store of value has seen its market capitalization exceed $2 trillion.Putting this in perspective, only four stocks in the U.S - Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOG), Apple (AAPL) and Nvidia (NVDA)- exceed it.The explanation for bitcoin's steepening rally is multi-faceted but momentum explains much of it. For all the institutional adoption of bitcoin in the last year or so, triggered by the Securities and Exchange Commission's approval of a Bitcoin ETF in January 2024, trading is still dominated by retail investors who follow the impetus of rising prices. In May alone, bitcoin ETFs have sucked in a record $3.6 billion of inflows.The 44% surge in bitcoin since its year-to-date low of $76,000 on April 8 is partly attributable to the overall relief rally in risk assets, but also comes as fears about the security of U.S. Treasuries after the Moody's downgrade last week . The swooning dollar DXY, the search for alternative investments and the background worries about the debasement of fiat currencies in a world where many countries encounter problems funding deficits all contribute to the allure of bitcoin.Even JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, a notorious skeptic of bitcoin, this week proclaimed, "I defend your right to buy bitcoin" and will allow clients to invest in it.This week the Genius Act, a bill proposing a legislative framework for stablecoins, advanced toward Senate approval, and while this does not directly affect bitcoin, retail investors have interpreted it as a further endorsement of the new administration of cryptocurrency as a whole. The fillip to crypto trading sentiment, given the confluence of negative factors affecting more traditional investments, came at just the right time.Now that the $110,000 landmark has been reached, traders will be looking for the next target price. Saylor's MicroStrategy (MSTR), a vehicle for playing bitcoin and its largest holder wrote on X Wednesday: "If you're not buying bitcoin at the all-time high, you're leaving money on the table."-Jules RimmerThis content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.