The price of Bitcoin (BTC) continues to extend its rally to new highs after surpassing $122,000 per coin early on Monday, marking the highest recorded price for the alpha cryptocurrency since its launch in 2009.
Bitcoin is now up 13% for the month and is on track to close its third consecutive green monthly candle. This time, the rally has been supported by growing demand for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which raked in over $1 billion in daily inflows on Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile, retail investors seem reluctant to jump back into the market, mainly due to the price.
Bitcoin’s July Rally Driven by Institutional Interest Through US Bitcoin ETFs, Which Handle 6% of Total Market Cap
BTC Markets analyst Rachael Lucas noted that ETF inflows have been the real momentum driver behind the current rally. The investment vehicles that provide institutional and retail investors with regulated exposure now hold over $150 billion worth of Bitcoin in assets under management, which accounts for 6% of its $2.43 trillion market capitalization. She said that this signals “deep institutional conviction” for the apex crypto asset.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) continued to lead the charts, crossing $83 billion in AUM on Thursday. The fund now holds over 700,000 BTC, surpassing Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) total holdings by nearly 100,000 coins.
In an X post, Kobeissi Letter analysts wrote that IBIT reached the $80 billion AUM mark faster than the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), the world’s largest gold ETF, boasting an AUM of over $100 billion, which took 15 years to reach the same milestone.
Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said IBIT “blew through” the valuation within 374 trading days, which is five times faster than the previous record-holder, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), which did it in 1,814 days. He also noted that iShares Bitcoin Trust is now the 21st largest fund overall in the ETF market.
Positive Development from the US “Crypto Week” Could Propel BTC’s Price to $130,000
According to SoSoValue data, US spot Bitcoin ETFs have drawn in around $16.2 billion since April.
Speaking to crypto media outlet The Block, Rachael Lucas said that if ETF demand continues and macro conditions, such as the Federal Reserve’s rate cuts on the dollar, remain supportive, then Bitcoin’s price could push even higher going into the third quarter of the year.
As for where BTC price goes next, the analyst has set her targets on the $125,000-$128,000 range in the near term. Lucas also added that Bitcoin is benefiting from the so-called “Crypto Week” in the United States, where lawmakers will discuss and potentially advance key crypto legislative proposals – the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act.
The CLARITY Act seeks to establish clear guidelines on how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) would regulate crypto assets, something the crypto industry has been demanding for years. On the other hand, the GENIUS Act aims to lay a regulatory standard for US dollar-pegged stablecoins, allowing entities registered as financial service providers to issue their own USD stablecoins.
Jeff Mei, COO at crypto exchange BTSE, also predicted that institutional buying could drive Bitcoin to a $125,000 valuation in the next month or two. He noted that despite President Donald Trump’s tariff disputes with America’s trading partners potentially causing dips in the weeks ahead, institutional buyers continue to believe that BTC will appreciate in the long run.
Increased Network Activity Hints at Lack of Panic or Profit-Taking, But Retail BTC Accumulation Falls Considerably
Bitcoin analyst Axel Adler Jr said that on-chain activity has been gradually increasing without any signs of profit-taking or panic. The daily average transaction rate has climbed from 340,000 to 364,000 over the past two days. However, this number remains well below the 530,000-666,000 peaks seen during previous market tops, which Adler said reflects a composed market environment.
He added that at the moment, there are no signs of active coin selling, and this strengthens both the fundamental and technical bullish signals for BTC.
Meanwhile, accumulator addresses, wallets that consistently acquire Bitcoin without significant outflows, have ramped up their activity over the past months. According to CryptoQuant data, these wallets now hold 250,000 BTC, worth $30.5 billion, jumping 71% from the 148,000 BTC ($18.09 billion) recorded at the end of June.
However, retail activity has been considerably low this cycle, with many analysts speculating that those investors perceive the current price of Bitcoin as too high to enter the market.
Andre Dragosch, head of research at Bitwise, said in a Friday X post that while Bitcoin continues to register new all-time highs, retail is “almost nowhere to be found”. He pointed to the lack of Google search interest in “Bitcoin” despite the flagship crypto setting consecutive all-time highs throughout last week.
Global Google search interest for the term “Bitcoin” increased by 8% in the week of July 6-12 compared to the previous seven days, running from June 19 to July 5. According to Google Trends and CoinMarketCap data, this increase coincided with BTC breaking its previous all-time high of $111,970 on Wednesday, July 9, and climbing to $118,870 by Friday, July 11.
Search interest for Bitcoin is 60% lower than the week between November 10 and 16, 2024, the time Trump was declared the winner of the US presidential election. That week was followed by a month-long price rally that propelled BTC to $100,000 for the first time in its history on December 5, 2024.
Crypto commentator Lindsay Stamp said that a lot of retail investors found out that the price of one Bitcoin had hit $117,000 to conclude that they missed the boat, not giving it a “second thought”. Bitcoin Martix podcast host Cedric Youngelman echoed a similar sentiment, writing in an X post that retail is not coming back to the market for a long time.
Michael Saylor Hints at New Bitcoin Buys for Strategy After a Week-Long Pause
Meanwhile, Strategy founder and chairman Michael Saylor has hinted at fresh Bitcoin buys following a week-long hiatus. On Sunday, he shared a post on X showing the BTC price chart since the company’s acquisitions began in August 2020, and wrote: “Some weeks, you don’t just HODL”.
Although the world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin skipped buying last week, it announced a $4.2 billion capital raise intended for further acquisition. Before the break, Strategy had racked up 12 consecutive weeks of BTC accumulation, with its most recent purchase coming on June 30, when it bought 4,980 BTC for $532 million. The company currently holds 597,325 BTC, valued at nearly $73 billion.
BitcoinTreasuries data shows that corporations bought 159,107 BTC in Q2 2025, led by Strategy, which acquired 69,140 BTC at a total value of $6.77 billion during that period. Currently, there are 3.5 million BTC held in institutional treasuries, including public companies, private enterprises, crypto firms, government organizations, pension funds, and asset managers.
Strategy has been accused of synthetically halving the supply of digital gold through its rapid accumulation strategy. Miners collectively produce around 450 BTC ($54.93 million) per day, or about 13,500 BTC ($1.65 billion) per month, while Strategy accumulated 379,800 BTC ($46.39 billion) in just six months, which is 2,087 BTC per day – far outpacing the production.
Strategy’s latest haul is expected to take its total treasury holdings well beyond the 600,000 BTC milestone, cementing its status as the largest corporate Bitcoin holder and second-largest holder after BlackRock’s IBIT ETF.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $122,218, up 3.69% in the last 24 hours.
