Bitcoin tops $110,000 for first time as US optimism lifts crypto

Bitcoin surpassed $110,000 for the first time to head towards another record high, with traders increasingly bullish on the prospects of the original cryptocurrency, reports Bloomberg.Bitcoin climbed as much as 2.2 per cent in early Asian trading on Thursday to hit $110,707, before paring gains, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

A wave of optimism is buoying Bitcoin after the advancement of a key stablecoin bill in the US senate fuelled hopes of greater regulatory clarity for crypto operators. Surging demand from Michael Saylor’s Strategy -- which has stockpiled over $50 billion worth of Bitcoin -- and a growing list of digital-asset hoarders is another driving force behind the rally.

“It has been a slow motion grind into new all-time highs,” said Joshua Lim, global co-head of markets at FalconX Ltd. “There’s no shortage of demand for BTC from SPAC and PIPE deals, which is manifesting in the premium on Coinbase spot prices.”

Such buyers include a flurry of obscure small-cap companies and public firms newly formed by crypto heavyweights which are financing their purchases by offering anything from convertible bonds to preferred stocks to finance.

An affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald LP is working with stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings SA and SoftBank Group to launch Twenty One Capital Inc, a company that emulates Strategy’s business model. A subsidiary of Strive Enterprises Inc co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy is merging with Nasdaq-listed Asset Entities Inc to form a Bitcoin treasury company. In options markets, traders built eye-catching Bitcoin positions earlier this week with the $110,000, $120,000 and $300,000 calls expiring on June 27 logging the most open interest -- or number of outstanding contracts -- on Deribit, the derivatives exchange.

Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG, said in a note that the fresh record shows that Bitcoin’s steep decline from a previous high set on January 20 to below $75,000 in April was “a correction within a bull market”.