Bitcoin hit a new all-time high

There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

Bitcoin hit a new all-time high on Monday. Plus, it’s “Crypto Week” for Congress, and crypto ETF inflows shattered records.

Where BTC could be headed next. What analysts are saying after this week’s price breakout.

A major increase in the total value locked in decentralized finance. And more key stats from around the cryptoverse.

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MARKET BYTES

Bitcoin hit a new all-time high above $123,000

As it has over and over in 2025, bitcoin just hit a new all-time high, spiking from around $108,000 last week to above $123,000 on Monday. The rally pushed BTC’s market capitalization past $2.4 trillion, making bitcoin the fifth-largest asset by market cap (behind only gold, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Apple).

A wide range of other tokens, from ether to XRP, also saw their prices soar.

Driving the surge was a combination of factors, including optimism over Congress tackling a suite of crypto rules this week; a wave of institutional investment via crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and analysts’ belief that the Federal Reserve will resume cutting interest rates this year.

By Tuesday, BTC settled to around $117,000 as some traders sold to lock in profits and U.S. inflation figures began to rise (although by less than many market watchers expected). Prices ticked back upward towards $120,000 on Wednesday.

Speaking to Bloomberg, one analyst described the dip as a “standard pullback” that often follows a rapid increase in prices.

Here’s more of the week’s key crypto news, followed by some expert takes on where markets could be going next.

Congress digs into “Crypto Week” legislation

Two major pieces of crypto legislation are currently making their way through the U.S. House of Representatives in what lawmakers have dubbed “Crypto Week.”

A major stablecoin bill, the GENIUS act — which already passed in the Senate with bipartisan support — would create clear rules and guidelines for stablecoin issuers that could help spark trillions of dollars in stablecoin growth over the next 5 years. President Trump has pledged to sign the bill into law if passed.

Another key piece of legislation, the CLARITY act, would establish a comprehensive legal framework for the crypto industry that includes creating a regulated path for new token issuance at the SEC, defining the Commodities Futures Trading Commission as the official regulator of crypto secondary spot markets, as well as other aspects including codifying the right to self-custody of crypto assets.

As of Wednesday morning (following a procedural snag on Tuesday), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise was promising a vote on both bills by day's end, alongside a third law that would ban the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency — essentially a digital dollar issued by the U.S. government.

The senate’s version of the bill is currently being hashed out by Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C), Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), among others.

“We have a lot of work to do, and we’re going to work on a bipartisan basis over the next month,” said Gillibrand.

Gaining CLARITY… “When consumers buy and sell and trade these digital assets, they want to know what they’re getting and they want to know that they’re using a reputable intermediary,” Coinbase Vice President of U.S. Policy Kara Calvert told CNBC. “And what this bill does is provide that construct to do that.”

Crypto ETF inflows continue to break records

As markets spiked last week, bitcoin and ether ETF inflows tallied a combined $3.7 billion, according to the latest CoinShares report — the second highest weekly number on record. Total assets under management for the class reached a new high of $211 billion.

Interestingly, ETH investment products have in recent weeks been growing faster than their bitcoin counterparts. Nearly $1 billion in new capital poured into ETH funds last week, marking the twelfth straight week of inflows.

“People are preferring Ethereum over Bitcoin,” CoinShares head of research, James Butterfill, told Decrypt. “Although the number is lower [for Ethereum] than Bitcoin, proportionally, it’s much more significant.”

Ripple effect… XRP spiked, and then dipped, on Monday following the news that a new ETF that would hold XRP futures is set to begin trading later this week.

CRYPTO BALL

What analysts think could be next for bitcoin

After a volatile Q2 that saw bitcoin fall as low as $75,000, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap has started Q3 with record-breaking momentum. With Bitcoin setting a series of new all-time highs set in the past week, market observers are now asking: What comes next?

Here’s what some analysts had to say.

There’s a “long and exhausting” bull market ahead, according to the research firm Bernstein, which also reiterated its call for bitcoin to reach $200,000 in the coming months.

Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani expects BTC to reach its price target by the end of this year or by early 2026, and cited rising institutional adoption rather than retail investor interest as the chief reason why. With institutional investors focusing heavily on stablecoins, cross-border payments, crypto wallet adoption and tokenization, "our conviction in blockchain and digital assets has never been higher,” wrote Chhugani.

The U.S. economy has found a “Goldilocks-like equilibrium,” said Singaporean firm QCP Capital, with economic growth boosted by a variety of factors. For one, companies hoping to avoid potential future tariffs have increased imports and ramped up manufacturing, while at the same time the U.S. economy has maintained its dominant position and inflation has remained relatively muted.

This combination could prove to be a boon for assets like bitcoin for the rest of the year. “Expectations of U.S. interest rate cuts in 2025 have fueled a risk-on sentiment, supporting bitcoin’s rally as a hedge against inflation,” said Ryan Lee, an analyst at Bitget Research.

Institutional investors are doubling down on BTC and ETH, according to a new report from the trading firm Wintermute. While in years past, the report said, institutional investors and retail investors largely followed the same trends, this cycle is seeing a major divergence.

Currently, institutional investors hold 67% of their portfolios in majors like BTC and ETH, compared to just 37% for retail investors, with the 30-percentage point disparity being the highest ever. The data highlights the increasing maturity of crypto markets, according to Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy. "Investors are no longer chasing the same trend,” Gaevoy said. “Institutions are treating crypto as a macro asset, while retail traders continue to gravitate to innovation.”

Don’t necessarily expect swift price increases like in years past, said Greg Magadini, Amberdata's director of derivatives. Even though bitcoin is pushing to new highs, Magadini says that investors should expect a slower ascent in comparison to past bull markets, due to bitcoin’s volatility dampening over time as the asset matures.

In past cycles, BTC was mostly available via crypto exchanges, but this time around deep-pocketed institutional investors can easily use ETFs and other strategies to gain exposure to bitcoin, which adds liquidity to the market but can lead to less volatility. So far this year, bitcoin’s realized volatility is 70.5% lower than in 2021. “As Bitcoin grows in market cap, it takes more money to move it around,” said Magadini.

Learn more about BTC

NUMBERS TO KNOW

$126 billion

The amount held in DeFi protocols as of July 15, a nearly 50% increase from just three months prior. Ethereum saw the total value locked (TVL) on DeFi platforms on its blockchain rise from $44 billion to more than $72 billion, and Solana saw its TVL rise from $6 billion to more than $9 billion in that same span.

$35 billion

The estimated market cap for tokenized real-world assets by the end of the year, according to the CEO of the tokenization firm Securitize. The growth has been spurred by rising interest in innovations such as tokenized treasuries, which have grown nearly 90% so far this year, to $7.5 billion.

1.4 billion

The number of Avalanche transactions conducted in 2025, a new high that is more than double last year’s activity. Onchain data indicates gaming, DeFi, and memecoins are the most popular AVAX-powered applications today.

$225 million

The amount of Ether recently added to SharpLink Gaming’s corporate treasury. With the new purchase, the publicly-traded firm now holds nearly $850 million ETH in reserve. SharpLink has led a recent surge in companies focusing on building ETH-based treasuries.