Bitcoin's Wild Ride Above $111K – What Triggered The Surge?

Bitcoin surged to a new all-time high this week, reawakening a cryptocurrency market that seemed to be losing steam in recent weeks due to lingering fears around the Trump trade war and other factors dampening market figures.

BTC prices skyrocketed above $111,814 Thursday, as per data from CoinGecko, obliterating its previous all-time highs above $109,000 in the peak of celebrations around a pro-crypto U.S. administration.

What Caused Bitcoin's Surge?

A surge in Bitcoin prices is usually affected by multiple factors, but in the latest case, the following developments may have played positively into the uptrend:

• Clearer rules of the road

Earlier this week, Senate Republicans advanced the stablecoin bill called the GENIUS Act toward a full floor vote. Notably, several Democrats helped move the proposed legislation forward.

If the bill officially passes, it is expected to help pave the way for clearer industry guidelines for stablecoin issuers and users.

Investors are drawn to increased certainty around assets. In the case of cryptocurrency, a stablecoin bill getting one step closer to becoming a law may have increased the confidence of investors in Bitcoin, the world's largest digital asset by market cap.

• Increasing corporate adoption

Criticism and doubt was rife when Strategy (MicroStrategy) first announced it was investing in Bitcoin back in 2020. Some five years later, multiple publicly-listed companies have adopted Strategy's corporate Bitcoin reserve.

On Thursday, health technology company H100 became Sweden's first publicly-listed firm to acquire BTC. The company acquired 4.39 Bitcoin (worth approximately $486,000), which it said was just the beginning of a long-term strategy "to align our balance sheet with the values of sovereignty, resilience, and digital-first innovation."

• Texas passes $BTC reserve

Also on Thursday, Texas passed Senate Bill 21, which establishes the state's strategic Bitcoin reserve (SBR). Thursday's progress marked the bill clearing both legislative chambers, meaning it is now headed to the governor's office.

Texas Rep. Giovanni Capriglione said the state will "have [the] biggest and best state Bitcoin reserve" in the country.

$BTC To Higher All-Time Highs?

Meanwhile, some industry experts have previously projected that BTC is headed to higher highs than what it has already been achieving in recent days.

Blockchain pioneer Adam Back said he expects Bitcoin to surge higher this cycle – between $500,000 and $1 million.

Back, who leads blockchain technology firm Blockstream, said his projection is based on the recent events surrounding crypto, Bitcoin in particular.

He went on to note how BTC's current prices are still low, "given all the things that are different compared to a couple years ago," including the approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and pro-BTC policies by the current U.S. government.

Bitcoin has retreated slightly as of early Friday, trading at around $110,600, but it remains up by over $6% in the week and is well on its way toward a $2.2 trillion market cap.