Bitcoin hit a new all-time price peak of $109,500 Wednesday morning, according to Coinbase.
The asset was trading around $108,839 at 11:42 am ET — up 3.4% on the day and 4.5% higher than a week ago.
Bitcoin’s previous price record came in January when the largest cryptocurrency breached $109,000 for the first time on the eve of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The price had spent portions of the last few months hovering in the $80,000 to $90,000 range as macroeconomic conditions and new tariff policies have weighed on riskier assets. BTC had spent most of the previous two weeks above $100,000.
Bitcoin’s current run-up comes as Treasury yields and oil prices are on the rise, though, which typically signals a risk-off appetite.
Current traders may be treating bitcoin as the “safe-haven” asset proponents have claimed it to be for years, but analysts warn that this is probably not a true decoupling.
“More likely, we’re seeing building concern about a bond market ‘event’ triggered by Japan,” Noelle Acheson, author of “Crypto is Macro Now,” wrote in a note Wednesday. “The yield on its 30- and 40-year government debt has shot up over the past few days, and is now at record highs.”
Yields on Japanese 30-year bonds hit a new high of 3.2% during Asian trading on Wednesday, according to data from the London Stock Exchange. The move implies the Japanese yen is gaining strength against the dollar, 10T Holdings founder Dan Tapiero said, which could explain bitcoin’s rally.
Joel Kruger, a currency strategist at LMAX Group, told Blockworks on Tuesday that bitcoin had “impressively” recovered after Moody’s US credit downgrade had the crypto market starting the week under pressure. That rebound was in part due to “a broader risk asset stabilization and healthy demand from medium and longer-term players into dips,” he noted.
“Meanwhile, positive regulatory developments, including the US Senate advancing a stablecoin bill and Coinbase’s S&P 500 inclusion, are reinforcing mainstream acceptance, countering macro pressures from cautious Federal Reserve commentary,” Kruger added.
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