Bitcoin Breaks Records: Surges Past $123K Amid Market Optimism

By the end of the day on Friday, July 12, Bitcoin was hovering around $117,000. This was after it broke above the $110,000 resistance that had held for much of July. Over the weekend through to Monday, price momentum built up, culminating in the record valuation in intraday trading. 

According to CoinShares, the rally was triggered by the release of the Fed minutes on July 9. The minutes indicated that most Fed officials did not favor a rate cut in July. The officials are cautious due to inflation risks, especially from President Trump’s tariff policies. Most officials expect the cuts to come later this year, although not urgently, likely in September and December. As per CoinShares’ analysis, the market took this sentiment as “a green light” to pile into Bitcoin.

Once the rally had caught on, the inertia of the price momentum was powerful enough to force crypto shorts to capitulate. A CoinGlass analysis concluded that this price momentum resulted in the largest single-day short squeeze of the year, worth about $1 billion. Much of the short squeeze came from BTC. 

But what kept the momentum strong? CoinShares identified “a round of very strong inflows into the U.S. ETFs” as the strongest tailwind. Data shows that net inflows into US-listed Bitcoin spot ETFs reached $14.83 billion the week before the record price. The figure surpasses the $14.82 billion inflows registered by the same time last year. Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are like a stock that you can buy through a regular investment account. The fund tracks the token’s actual price, so investors can invest in Bitcoin without needing to figure out how to buy and store the cryptocurrency themselves.

Institutional buyer activity also helped fan the price momentum. On July 14 alone, Metaplanet acquired 1,005 BTC for $108.1 million. Between July 7 and July 13, Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) added 4,225 BTC to its bulging treasury. At 601,550 BTC, Strategy is now the world’s largest corporate bitcoin holder.

Expert observers view “Crypto Week” as the biggest catalyst of Bitcoin’s record-breaking performance. The House Committee on Financial Services Chairman French Hill, House Committee on Agriculture Chairman GT Thompson, and House Leadership declared the week of July 14, 2025, as “Crypto Week” to rally members to pass three major cryptocurrency-related bills. The three bills are the GENIUS Act (focuses on stablecoin regulation), CLARITY Act (aims to define Bitcoin as a commodity), and Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act (blocks the Federal Reserve from creating or piloting any kind of central bank digital currency (CBDC) unless Congress gives the green light).

On Thursday, the House passed the GENIUS Act, and all that remains is the President’s signature. The other two also sailed through but will move to the Senate for further consideration. TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg noted this week that “passing this bill [GENIUS Act] is symbolically important.” To Matt Hougan, Bitwise CIO, the “big impact of ‘Crypto Week’ legislation will be reduced risk and downside volatility in the crypto market.”

Even before the House assembled to consider the three bills, some experts were already praising the optics around them as a key catalyst. “Even if final passage stalls, the optics of legislative engagement are bullish,” said Bitfinex’s Jag Kooner. 

AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth referred to “Crypto Week” as a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency space, which would fuel a rally. “Investors are racing to take positions ahead of the extra publicity this event could attract,” he said.