Bitcoin pulls back after latest push toward record falls short

Bitcoin retreated from the highs of the day after an earlier push toward the record price level set a little more than two weeks ago fell short.

The original cryptocurrency has jumped around 16% so far this year with the crypto-friendly Trump administration seen bolstering demand for digital assets. Expectations that the US is moving closer to resolving trade conflicts with nations such as China has helped to increase overall demand for riskier assets.

“A larger and larger audience of institutional buyers are getting comfortable with the asset and seeing that this has the potential to be much larger asset class than gold,” said Eric Jackson, president and founder of Emj Capital, a venture capital company. “There’s a drumbeat of announcements from sovereigns, Bitcoin treasury companies, and other institutions that they are taking notice of it, and that’s all combining for the interest in Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin rose as much as 1.7% to $110 572 on Tuesday, before trading little changed. The digital currency reached a record $111 980 on May 22. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, rose as much as 8.3%.

Cryptocurrencies have been buoyed in recent months by a flurry of demand from established banks, with crypto boosters rushing to set up vehicles that mimic the businesses model of Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which has amassed a Bitcoin stockpile of more than $60 billion.

“Winter’s not coming back — we’re past that phase. Bitcoin’s not going to zero, it’s going to a million dollars,” Saylor said during a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday.

Ether rose on the back of comments from SEC Chairman Paul Atkins promising to free up the regulatory landscape for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) platforms during a Crypto Task Force Roundtable on Monday. Atkins suggested that developers would no longer be subject to the federal securities laws for creating automated code used for trading, even when the code is used for malicious activity. He also said he requested the commission to explore whether “further guidance” may be helpful for assisting users to service DeFi platforms in “compliance with applicable law.”

“We should not automatically fear the future,” Atkins said. “I do not believe that we should allow century-old regulatory frameworks to stifle innovation with technologies that could upend and most importantly improve and advance our current, traditional intermediated model.”

The demand shown by investors for Circle Internet Group Inc.’s oversubscribed initial public offering last week also shows that there is a demand for crypto-aligned products. The cryptocurrency exchange platform’s stock surged from an IPO price of $31 to $107 during its first week of trading.

“Robust institutional demand is driving sentiment, fueled by Circle’s highly oversubscribed IPO last week,” said Jake Ostrovskis, an OTC trader at Wintermute. “Meanwhile, BlackRock’s IBIT ETF hit $70bn in AUM yesterday, becoming the fastest ETF in history to reach this milestone. These narratives have succeeded in pushing spot toward all-time highs, with traders closely watching momentum around these levels.”

Legislation on stablecoins could also bode more promise for the industry, setting rules for stablecoins and making issuers subject to oversight by federal or state regulators.

“All of these regulations are going to help the price of crypto longer—term,” Jackson said.

© 2025 Bloomberg

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