Yesterday’s breakthrough to $112,000 was not a one-time thing, as the primary cryptocurrency has initiated another leg up in the past few hours and tapped a fresh peak at well over $113,000.

Many altcoins have produced notable gains over the past 24 hours as well, with ETH climbing above $2,800 and DOGE shooting up by over 5.5%.

BTC was stuck in a consolidation phase for weeks, with a lower boundary at $105,000 and an upper one at $110,000. However, the asset finally showed early signs of a potential breakthrough yesterday following Trump’s call for the Fed to reduce the interest rate by a historic percentage.

This time, the $110,000 barrier couldn’t contain bitcoin, and the asset blasted through it with ease yesterday, popping up to a new all-time high at $112,000 amid growing demand from US investors.

It retraced slightly today, but the bulls went back on the offensive hours ago, pushing the cryptocurrency to a new peak of over $113,000.

With many altcoins posting impressive price increases over the past 24 hours, it’s no wonder that the overall liquidations within that timeframe have marked a multi-week high of $600 million.

Naturally, shorts are responsible for the lion’s share, including this single position where a mysterious whale was wrecked for over $51 million.

In the past hour alone, the liquidations have topped $80 million as BTC and most alts started to regain traction.

Within the last 24 hours, bitcoin (BTC) has broken out of its consolidation zone to hit new all-time highs (ATHs) on several crypto exchanges. The asset rallied to $112,000 on some trading venues and above on others.

Burakkesmeci, an analyst at the market intelligence platform CryptoQuant, has revealed that strong BTC purchases in the United States fueled the rally. This is evident in the Coinbase Premium Index, which climbed a few points during the surge. The index tracks BTC demand among U.S. investors.

Coinbase Premium Rises

According to Burakkesmeci, the Coinbase Premium surged to 42 points. This indicates that investors on the largest US crypto exchange paid $42 more per BTC than those on its rival, Binance. The uptick also indicates significant demand from U.S.-based investors.

The CryptoQuant analyst noted that the Coinbase Premium gap was not the weekly high. The index peaked at $87.76 last week, revealing stronger buying pressure among investors.

This index has historically surged during bitcoin rallies and plummeted during declines. A positive flip suggests growing institutional and retail interest in BTC, while a negative premium signals more selling. Burakkesmeci said demand for BTC remains strong, even after the asset reached a new high. This could be a sign that the bulls are not done.

Persistent Institutional and ETF Demand

In line with the uptick in Coinbase Premium, the U.S. spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) market has been experiencing massive inflows. In the past 21 trading days, these funds have recorded just one day of outflows. The ETFs have garnered at least $4.5 billion in positive flows so far in July and are likely to continue doing so in the coming weeks.

The market has witnessed a rise in institutional interest, with several corporate treasuries adopting Bitcoin strategies and becoming Bitcoin treasury companies. The creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the U.S. has played a huge role in this rising adoption.

Most analysts insist that bitcoin’s short-term outlook remains bullish and could only be slightly swayed by unfavorable macroeconomic conditions. However, provided ETF and institutional demand do not falter as the asset prepares for its last leg of this bull cycle, BTC has a higher chance of surviving market storms.

The stablecoin market could potentially balloon nearly tenfold within a few years, according to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.

Appearing on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday, Garlinghouse highlighted the sector’s momentum and said that many expect stablecoins to reach a combined market capitalization of $1 trillion to $2 trillion, up from around $260 billion today.

The exec added that the current growth rate is “profound,” while explaining that Ripple’s late entry into the stablecoin sector was a result of using stablecoins in its institutional payment flows prior to launching its own USD-backed asset.

BNY Mellon Backs Ripple’s RLUSD

Garlinghouse’s comments came as Ripple announced that the Bank of New York Mellon will now handle the USD cash and Treasury bills that back its RLUSD stablecoin.

Meanwhile, the partnership, which was disclosed on Wednesday, secures RLUSD a reputable banking partner as it scales further. As one of the largest custody banks in the US, BNY Mellon will safeguard and manage the liquidity of the reserves backing every RLUSD issued. It has been tasked with ensuring that holders can redeem the stablecoin for USD on a 1-to-1 basis under standards similar to money-market fund controls.

BNY’s support for RLUSD aligns with its gradual expansion into crypto services since establishing a digital asset unit in 2021 and welcoming institutional crypto clients in 2022. Ripple’s RLUSD, which launched in December 2024 on Ethereum and the XRP Ledger, has grown rapidly within the $260 billion stablecoin market.

RLUSD is designed to align with upcoming bipartisan legislation in the US, the GENIUS Act, which will introduce federal standards for reserve disclosures and backing. The stablecoin industry continues to attract interest from major corporations like Amazon and Walmart, alongside top-tier banks exploring entry into this expanding ecosystem.

J.P. Morgan Throws Cold Water on Hype

Apart from Ripple’s outlook, Standard Chartered anticipates the stablecoin sector could expand to $2 trillion by 2028, while Bernstein expects supply to climb toward $4 trillion within ten years.

J.P. Morgan, however, remains skeptical. The investment banking behemoth estimated growth to just $500 billion by 2028, and argued that trillion-dollar expectations are premature amid the lack of widespread use of stablecoins.