Bitcoin crosses $100,000 for first time since February amid renewed US trade negotiations

Bitcoin crossed the psychologically important trading level of $100,000 on Thursday morning, according to The Block’s BTC price data . The move marks a recent high after sinking to a local low of $76,320 on April 8, amid a mix of macroeconomic uncertainty largely driven by President Donald Trump’s touch-and-go trade policy.

The world's largest cryptocurrency is up nearly 4% on the day, about 7.8% on the week, and 27.4% over the past 30 days, according to The Block's data. This is the first time bitcoin has touched the $100,000 level since Feb. 4.

According to some experts , the rally this week was sparked by renewed trade negotiations between U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese officials scheduled to take place in Switzerland. Trump said on Thursday that trade deals could come this week, including with the UK.

Others, including Standard Chartered analyst Geoffrey Kendrick, argued BTC is rising due to increased flows. If the levels hold, bitcoin could rise to all-time highs.

"I think a fresh all-time high for Bitcoin is coming soon. My specific target of USD120k for Q2 looks very achievable," Kendrick told The Block in an email. "The dominant story for Bitcoin has changed again."

Up until last month, the price of bitcoin was largely correlated with tech stocks. However, during brief periods during the trade negotiations in April, bitcoin began to act as a hedge while the wider equities market sank.

"Bitcoin then became a way to position for strategic asset reallocation out of U.S. assets. It is now all about flows. And flows are coming in many forms," Kendrick said, pointing specifically at over $3.5 billion worth of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded product inflows in the past three weeks, Strategy’s recently announced "42/42" plan to raise an additional $84 billion to buy BTC, and other dynamics.

"Strategy (formerly Microstrategy) has also ramped up both current and planned buying. They now hold 555,450 Bitcoins," he said. "This is 2.6% of all Bitcoins that will ever exist. And their new plan to raise a further USD84bn to buy more Bitcoin would add another 840,000 Bitcoins (at USD100k price)."

Bitcoin traded around $101,800 at publication time.