- Demand from Asia seen to drive Bitcoin to a new price record.
- US investors are also piling into Bitcoin.
- Analysts ponder how high can Bitcoin’s price go.
Traders in Asia are driving Bitcoin towards another all-time high price, according to analysts.
Bitcoin is up almost 30% year to date. “Asian trading hours alone contributed more than 25% to that gain,” analysts at crypto research firm 10x Research told DL News while adding that the price pressure could keep the market on a long-term tilt to the upside.
The comments come as the top cryptocurrency flirted with breaking its July record early on Monday morning when Bitcoin’s price came within 1% of $123,000.
Market watchers have spent the past months arguing that Bitcoin will go as high as $250,000 this year.
The rally over the weekend indicates that, as analysts at the London Crypto Club put it, the “summer lull for crypto is over.”
What’s driving the rally?
Bitcoin came within spitting distance of breaking its old record thanks to several factors apart from interest from traders in Asia.
US investors have also piled into Bitcoin and driven up the Coinbase premium, the difference in the Bitcoin price on Coinbase Pro and other exchanges, including Binance.
This means US investors are willing to pay a premium for Bitcoin on Coinbase, an indication of rising demand.
David Brickell and Chris Mills, the analysts behind the London Crypto Club’s weekly Connecting The Dots newsletter, wrote on Monday that they expect crypto to keep rallying thanks to a combination of rising global liquidity, weakening fiat currencies, and central banks cutting interest rates.
Data from the CME FedWatch tool shows traders are pricing in an 88% chance that the Federal Reserve will slash interest rates in September. Lower interest rate environments are seen as a positive growth driver for assets like stocks and crypto.
This week, traders will be looking to Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index, or CPI, report to get a read on the impact of US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies on inflation.
A lower-than-expected CPI print indicates inflation is still under control, despite Trump’s tariff blitz, and might make the Federal Reserve more amenable to a rate slash in September.
Still, other experts say Bitcoin will show strength even if macro conditions exert short-term pressure on the market.
Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX Group, previously told DL News that massive institutional demand and favourable regulatory shifts will shore up Bitcoin’s resilience to periods where macro storms kneecap the stock market.
Bitcoin exchange-traded fund inflows also flipped positive last week after massive withdrawals at the start of August, according to data from Farside, a UK investment management firm.
In April, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said Bitcoin won’t blink if Trump’s tariff zigzag upends the market. Hayes has predicted that Bitcoin will rise as high as $250,000 this year.
Osato Avan-Nomayo is our Nigeria-based DeFi correspondent. He covers DeFi and tech. Got a tip? Please contact him at osato@dlnews.com.
