The Unstoppable Ascent of Bitcoin Continues With Shorts Folding, Records Tumbling, and Inflows Climbing

Bitcoin surged past a new all-time high on Friday, briefly trading above $118,000. This marks a 26% year-to-date gain for the cryptocurrency in 2025, putting it on par with gold's performance for the same period.

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The most recent rally began in earnest on Wednesday when Bitcoin (BTCUSD) shattered its prior peak of $111,000, which had been set in May. This upward breakout brought in a wave of momentum-driven investors—traders who typically focus more on market trends and technical indicators than on fundamental value.

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Thursday saw a major spike in inflows into bitcoin-related investment products. Investors poured $1.18 billion into bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), marking the second-largest single-day inflow to date. This inflow followed the chart breakout and drove even more investor interest. Total net inflows into bitcoin ETFs for 2025 are now estimated at around $51 billion.

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Fueling the rally was a large-scale short squeeze that added to the surge in price and volume. According to CoinDesk, short sellers who had bet against Bitcoin were caught off guard by the sudden price jump, leading to approximately $1.01 billion worth of short positions being liquidated within just 24 hours across various crypto trading platforms. Roughly 237,000 traders were affected by this move, with one short position on the HTX exchange alone losing a staggering $88 million.

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While Bitcoin has been on an upward trajectory since early 2023, its momentum accelerated dramatically after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. During his campaign, Trump pledged to implement a regulatory structure aimed at promoting the adoption of digital assets and blockchain technologies. Staying true to his promise, he signed an executive order to that effect shortly after taking office in January 2025.

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In June, crypto market sentiment received another boost when the Senate passed the Genius Act—a legislative measure that seeks to regulate certain cryptocurrencies. This bill added to the optimistic tone around crypto regulation. Furthermore, Trump floated the idea of creating a government-backed strategic reserve for digital currencies. He proposed that five cryptocurrencies—Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Ripple, and Cardano—be included in this reserve.

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Bitcoin’s increasing integration into the financial mainstream has also been bolstered by institutional investment. One of the landmark moments came in January 2024 under the prior administration, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the first bitcoin ETFs. That approval led to immediate launches by major players such as BlackRock and Fidelity, whose ETFs—IBIT and FBTC—added credibility and legitimacy to bitcoin as an investable asset.

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It isn’t only institutional investors making moves into bitcoin. Corporations around the world are buying into the cryptocurrency in growing numbers. Recent data indicates that approximately 130 publicly traded companies now hold about 3.2% of all bitcoin currently in circulation.

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Among these, the most prominent is Michael Saylor’s firm, MicroStrategy (MSTR), which reportedly owns close to 600,000 bitcoins purchased at an average price of around $66,000.

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Wall Street analysts are increasingly incorporating bitcoin into their broader investment frameworks and strategy notes. Citi, for example, included bitcoin in its macro outlook for the second half of 2025. In a report released Friday, Citi's team led by Dirk Willer emphasized the positive momentum behind bitcoin and discussed its potential role in diversified portfolios. The report also explored how bitcoin's characteristics differ from gold, despite its common nickname, “digital gold.”

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Citi’s analysts pointed out that bitcoin behaves more like a physical commodity than a traditional hedge asset like gold. Unlike gold, which typically gains value during periods of falling interest rates, bitcoin has shown strength in environments where the economy is overheating and bond yields are climbing.

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Moreover, bitcoin has demonstrated resilience during periods of rising term premiums—situations where long-term interest rates increase due to higher inflation or uncertainty about future monetary policy.

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This distinction in behavior could make bitcoin particularly useful in diversified portfolios, especially in an era of economic shifts and interest rate volatility. As bitcoin continues to evolve from a speculative asset to a mainstream financial instrument, its correlation with traditional markets and macroeconomic trends is becoming an area of growing interest for both individual and institutional investors alike.

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With momentum building from regulatory tailwinds, institutional acceptance, and continued retail enthusiasm, bitcoin’s role in global finance appears increasingly secure—and potentially transformative.

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