Bitcoin (BTC) hit its highest price in US dollar terms in 2025 on Friday and posted a new record against the British pound as enthusiasm grows for a new era of crypto-friendly US government ahead of the inauguration. Donald Trump’s inauguration next week.
BTC surpassed $105,000 during the US session, rising 5.2% in the last 24 hours and leading the broad market crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 index higher. Of CoinDesk’s 20 constituents, only Litecoin’s NEAR and LTC kept pace with bitcoin’s gains, while Ethereum’s solana (SOL) and ether (ETH) lagged behind with gains of 3%. XRP posted a 4% drop, moving away from its all-time highs after a massive market-leading rally earlier this week.
Cryptocurrency-related stocks are also rising. MicroStrategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of BTC, rose 7% on the day, while exchange giant Coinbase (COIN) advanced 4.5%. MARA Holdings led the gains among major bitcoin miners, up 13%.
It’s a big turnaround from earlier in the week, when a widespread market sell-off saw Bitcoin fall below $90,0000, with fears growing of a deeper pullback. However, since then, BTC has bounced 17% first as investor anxiety over Wednesday’s US CPI inflation report passed and then as attention turned to speculation over potential crypto stocks. Donald Trump after his inauguration on January 20.
By surpassing last week’s local high of $102,000, BTC also broke its multi-week downtrend of lower highs to target its December record price, said Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy.
“Now $108,000 is the near-term resistance target,” he said in an X post. “There are many reasons to be optimistic.”
Strong bitcoin ETF flows
The combined spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $1.381 billion over the past two days, reversing a four-day outflow streak, according to data from Farside Investors. Ether spot ETFs attracted $166 million in inflows, their strongest day in more than a month.
With markets closed on Monday, today is the last trading session in traditional markets before Trump’s inauguration.
BlackRock’s Ishares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) saw nearly $1 billion in trading volume in just over the first hour of the session, posting the fourth-highest volume among all US ETFs and outperforming the ETF Vanguard’s S&P 500 (VOO) with nearly ten times its assets under management, according to Barchart data.
All eyes on Trump
The next biggest catalyst will be Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Monday, with cryptocurrency investors expecting a radical change from the new president. Trump promised during the election campaign to position the United States as a leader in the crypto space, including creating a national reserve of bitcoins, in stark contrast to the crackdowns and regulatory measures of years past.
Bloomberg reported Thursday that Trump plans an executive order to elevate digital assets to a “national priority” and create an advisory council of industry members for policy recommendations.
The odds of the US establishing a bitcoin reserve have risen sharply in recent days, with Polymarket traders attributing a 38% chance to Trump making it a reality during the first 100 days of his presidency.
“As we close out the final week of the Biden presidency, the technical outlook remains very constructive for BTC,” John Glover, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency lender Ledn, said in an emailed note.
“The only thing that could cause a big corrective move lower is if Trump does not act on his plans to relax regulatory policy around digital assets and start accumulating BTC treasury holdings,” he added. “Recent headlines indicate he is determined to make this a priority in his first 100 days.”
Glover’s analysis using wave theory projects that Bitcoin will reach $128,000 in the coming months following its interim 5-wave pattern, completing its largest wave 3 in its uptrend. According to wave theory, market trends develop in five waves, three of which represent the main trend and the others constitute pullbacks.
Breaking through the all-time high of $108,000 is key, Glover said, and there remains a slim chance of reaching the recent lows of $90,000 again. However, this scenario is increasingly unlikely, he added.
