Monday marked bitcoin's return above $80,000 for the first time since January, with the token briefly touching $80,594 — a 2.1% intraday gain — before retreating to around $79,700 by 10 a.m. London time.

The rally unfolded against an improving backdrop for risk assets: MSCI's Asian equity gauge was closing in on its February peak while futures tied to U.S. tech stocks signaled additional upside, according to Bloomberg. Ether and Solana each edged higher alongside bitcoin. Bitcoin is up about 20% since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, according to Bloomberg.

Intel's revenue surged 25% in second quarter, its fastest growth in 15 years

Sentiment also got a lift from hopes that lawmakers could soon agree on a stablecoin yield provision, a development that would open the door to wider crypto legislation advancing through the Senate, according to Bloomberg.

Cumulative flows into U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs reached roughly $2.7 billion across the past three weeks, pushing the category's total net assets past $100 billion, according to CoinDesk. Friday's session alone contributed $630 million of that total, Bloomberg data showed.

Despite the price milestone, analysts have flagged signs of fragility beneath the rally. CryptoQuant's April 30 report raised a caution flag: its analysts determined that last month's price move owed almost everything to rising perpetual futures activity, with physical spot demand actually shrinking over the same period — the type of leverage-without-conviction setup that has tended to precede sharp pullbacks when traders eventually close their positions, according to CoinDesk.

Polymarket contracts show bettors see a coin-flip-plus chance — 56% — of bitcoin tagging $85,000 before the month ends, yet the probability collapses to just 23% for a move all the way to $90,000, according to CoinDesk.

Richard Galvin, executive chairman at DACM, characterized $80,000 as "a big psychological barrier" for crypto markets in comments to Bloomberg. Orbit Markets co-founder Caroline Mauron added that a convincing move through that ceiling would deliver "further positive momentum to the asset class," according to Bloomberg.

The token's peak of just over $126,000 came in October, according to Bloomberg, after which a prolonged sell-off cut its value to roughly $60,000 by February. Growing interest from institutional buyers has been among the factors behind its subsequent recovery.

Bitcoin surges above $80,000 for the first time since January as risk appetite returns

Related Content

Related Content