Bitcoin slips after touching new all-time high, as rising yields pressure risk assets
Global Economy May 21, 2025
Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images
Bitcoin rose to a new all-time high on Wednesday, breaking its January record.
The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last trading flat at $106,678.74, according to Coin Metrics, after Treasury yields spiked and stocks fell to session lows. Earlier, it rose as high as $109,500.
'Bitcoin's new high has been concocted by an array of favorable ingredients in the macro cauldron, namely softer U.S. inflation numbers, a de-escalation in the U.S.-China trade war and the Moody's downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt, which has put the spotlight on alternative stores of value like bitcoin,' said Antoni Trenchev, cofounder of crypto exchange Nexo. Stock chart icon
Bitcoin hits a new record Wednesday
'We've entered an alternate universe very different from early April when global macro concerns were at their peak and bitcoin slumped to $74,000,' he added. 'It's possible a three-month window has opened for risk assets to thrive as a broader agreement between the U.S. and China is thrashed out.'
After languishing for several weeks amid tariff-related uncertainty, bitcoin's price has been steadily climbing in May, up 13% for the month. Cumulative inflows into ETFs tracking the price of bitcoin surpassed $40 billion last week and have seen just two days of outflows in May, according to SoSoValue. The cryptocurrency has benefited from both liquidity in the stock market giving a boost to risk assets, as well as recent risk-off scenarios related to concerns about tariffs and deficits in the U.S. that have driven gains in gold as well as bitcoin.
On-chain data also shows lower selling pressure as indicated by bitcoin inflows into exchanges and increased liquidity in the crypto market as measured by new records of the amount of Tether stablecoin USDT , a gauge of crypto market liquidity, sitting on exchanges, according to CryptoQuant.
Investors have been expecting upcoming catalysts, including regulatory updates as well as corporate treasury investments, to drive bitcoin prices higher. Since the beginning of the year, the number of bitcoin held by public companies has grown 31% to about $349 billion, according to Bitcoin Treasuries. That comprises 15% of the total bitcoin supply.
Earlier this week, the Senate voted to advance legislation that would create the first regulatory framework in the U.S. for stablecoins, a key sector of the crypto market. President Donald Trump has said he wants to see crypto regulation on his desk and ready to sign by August before Congress is in recess.
Also this month, Coinbase joined the S&P 500, which Wall Street has praised as a watershed moment for the crypto industry.
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