Bitcoin (BTC) surged past its previous record on Wednesday, rallying in tandem with U.S. equities as investors continued piled into risk assets ahead of key macro catalysts.
BTC rose above $124,000 in early Asia trading on Thursday, topping the July 14 high of $123,205, before seeing slight profit taking. The move came as the S&P 500 logged its second consecutive record close, meaning BTC mirrored a rally in stocks as both markets feed off the same bullish macro backdrop.
It became the fifth-largest asset by market capitalization across all assets, data shows, crossing Google’s $2.4 trillion.
The milestone reflects a year-long build in bullish sentiment, fueled by a friendlier regulatory backdrop under President Donald Trump and the rapid adoption of corporate treasury strategies centered on bitcoin accumulation.
Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) pioneered the playbook of stockpiling BTC as a balance sheet asset, a move now mirrored by smaller public companies — and increasingly, by Ether proponents.
The result has been broad-based strength across top digital assets, with bitcoin’s market capitalization climbing to $2.46 trillion and Ether’s to nearly $575 billion, according to CoinGecko. Together, the two dominate roughly 70% of all crypto trading activity.
The rally is also riding a wave of macro optimism. U.S. inflation data this week landed in line with expectations, reinforcing bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in September.
Lower borrowing costs tend to boost valuations for riskier assets by easing financial conditions, creating a spillover from blue-chip equities into high-volatility corners like crypto.
With bitcoin now firmly above the $120,000 resistance zone, some technical analysts are eyeing $135,000–$138,000 as the next upside target, as CoinDesk reported earlier in the week.