Bitcoin continued its rapid climb and hit another all-time high Monday as U.S. lawmakers begin a week focused on passing pro-crypto legislation.
Data from CoinMarketCap showed bitcoin climbed above $123,000 early Monday, up from about $108,000 only a week ago. The world’s oldest and most popular cryptocurrency is currently the fifth most valuable asset class in the world at $2.4 trillion, giving it a higher market cap than Amazon.
The enthusiasm for bitcoin comes as the U.S. House is set to take up several pieces of cryptocurrency-related legislation in what’s been dubbed “crypto week” in Congress. Lawmakers have been under pressure from President Donald Trump and the big-spending crypto lobby to pass legislation quickly.
That includes a bill passed last month by the Senate that would regulate a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins. The House is also set to take up a cryptocurrency market structure legislation that is far more sweeping.
Trump, once a skeptic of the industry, has vowed in his second term to make the U.S. the global capital of crypto. Meanwhile, he and his family have moved aggressively into nearly every corner of the industry: mining operations, billion-dollar bitcoin purchases, a newly minted stablecoin and a Trump-branded meme coin.
The crypto industry has rapidly become a major player in Washington after feeling unfairly targeted by the Biden administration. The industry spent huge amounts on last year’s elections and has been spending heavily on lobbying and other influence efforts this year.
Bitcoin has seen a significant rebound since April, when it briefly dipped below $75,000.
Spot bitcoin ETFs are becoming increasingly popular since launching last year and several publicly traded companies have made using debt and stock sales to buy bitcoin their primary business strategy.
Created in response to the 2008 financial crisis, bitcoin has taken a highly volatile path to mainstream acceptance. Its backers say the asset is like a “digital gold” that can act as a hedge against central bank and government malfeasance. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever be created.
“Bitcoin’s price is finally catching up to what’s been building under the surface,” said Adam Back, CEO of the crypto company Blockstream. “This is institutional demand aligning with bitcoin’s fundamentals, and a fixed supply doing what it was designed to do.”
The broader market, meanwhile on Monday, held near record territory following Trump’s latest updates to his tariffs and speculation that he may ultimately back down on them.
Trump announced plans over the weekend for 30% tariffs on goods from Mexico and the European Union. They won’t take effect until Aug. 1, the same deadline that Trump announced last week for updated tax rates on imports from Japan, South Korea and a dozen other countries.
The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.
If Trump were to enact all his proposed tariffs on Aug. 1, they would raise the risk of a recession. That would not only hurt U.S. voters but also raise the pressure on the U.S. government’s debt level relative to the economy’s size, particularly after Washington approved big tax cuts that will add to the deficit.
“We therefore believe that the administration is using this latest round of tariff escalation to maximize its negotiating leverage and that it will ultimately de-escalate, especially if there is a new bout of heightened bond and stock market volatility,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.
“As usual, there are many conditions and clauses that can get these rates reduced,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “That’s probably why the market might not like the tariff talk, but it’s not panicking about it either.”
