July 10 EST: Bitcoin punched through $113,000 Wednesday morning, extending a rally that’s been quietly building steam since late June. The move puts the digital asset up around 20% on the year, with most of those gains coming in the past three weeks.
This isn’t another crypto fever dream. Behind the spike are tangible forces: record ETF flows, policy shifts in Washington, and a noticeable change in how large institutions are treating Bitcoin—not as a bet, but as a balance sheet tool.
Not Just Hype: ETF Flows Bring Real Capital to the Table
In previous crypto surges, price often outpaced fundamentals. This time, the money is actually arriving. U.S.-based spot Bitcoin ETFs have logged hundreds of millions in inflows over the last two weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal and Yahoo Finance. That includes inflows from RIAs, pensions, and multi-strategy funds—not just retail traders with a Coinbase app.
When Bitcoin popped late Tuesday, more than $340 million in short positions were liquidated, adding fuel. But that wasn’t the cause—it was a symptom. The underlying driver is that money managers finally have a vehicle to gain exposure to Bitcoin without touching an offshore exchange or holding keys on a flash drive.
As one trader at a mid-size asset firm put it: “It’s the first time we could pitch this upstairs without a compliance headache.”
Regulatory Climate: Signals, Not Certainty
There’s no formal legislation yet, but markets are forward-looking. And they like what they hear.
With the U.S. heading toward a pivotal election, both parties are suddenly softening their stance on digital assets. The Wall Street Journal reports that elements of a new administration could push for government-held Bitcoin reserves or expand ETF access. That’s speculative, but the shift in tone is already having an effect.
Even the SEC’s relative silence is telling. A lack of enforcement headlines, after years of scrutiny, suggests that regulators may be making room rather than building walls.
That alone gives allocators more comfort. Nobody wants to be the first to pitch Bitcoin to an investment committee and get blindsided by a subpoena six weeks later.
Institutions Are Showing Their Cards
The list of firms leaning into Bitcoin is getting harder to ignore. MicroStrategy is the headline act, sure—but others are stepping in more quietly. Treasury desks are starting to consider crypto allocations alongside gold and FX hedges. Public companies are hinting at crypto holdings during earnings calls. Even Coinbase, long treated like a speculative trade, is being repriced as infrastructure.
Bitcoin’s price is responding because the adoption is happening—just not in TikTok videos or Discord servers. It’s happening in quarterly board decks and behind closed doors at BlackRock and Fidelity.
Macro Tailwinds Add Lift
This rally also has a timing tailwind. U.S. equities are in risk-on mode, with tech stocks hitting fresh highs and inflation fears easing. That environment makes Bitcoin easier to stomach for investors already rotating into higher beta names.
In that sense, Bitcoin is behaving less like a tech disrupter and more like a momentum asset—a place to park capital in a bull cycle. That doesn’t mean it’s safe. It just means it fits the current mood.
Where This Could Go—and Why It Could Snap
With Bitcoin holding above $110K, the next clear resistance is $120,000, a psychological and technical ceiling. If ETF flows continue and macro stays supportive, it’s possible. But investors should be careful not to confuse structure with certainty.
Bitcoin remains volatile. It trades 24/7. There’s no Fed backstop or earnings report to anchor it. The same flows that push it up can reverse fast—and they often do.
In the short term, that means traders will need to watch liquidity, ETF rebalancing, and any political headlines out of D.C. In the long term, the conversation is shifting from “Should we own Bitcoin?” to “How much?”
That alone marks a turning point.
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A Wall Street veteran turned investigative journalist, Marcus brings over two decades of financial insight into boardrooms, IPOs, corporate chess games, and economic undercurrents. Known for asking uncomfortable questions in comfortable suits.
