Thursday 22 May 2025 will remain a date engraved in cryptocurrency history. Indeed, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high, closing the day at $111,390 and briefly touching a daily high of $112,000. It is a rally that swept away weeks of hesitation, consolidating a positive trend that began in early April, when BTC was trading at $76,450. The turnaround coincided with President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 90-day suspension on US trade tariffs: a move that eased pressure on markets and gave new oxygen to high-risk assets, crypto in the lead. Bitcoin’s growth in this context exceeded 45% in seven weeks, and meanwhile, the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indices also recorded notable surges, of 20% and 27% respectively.
Ethereum has not been idle. In the bright shadow of its big brother, ETH rose from USD 1,470 to USD 2,530 in just seven weeks, marking a +72% increase that destabilised all forecasts. The derivatives market reacted with the biggest wave of short liquidations of the year: over $670 million wiped out in a single day. Yet despite the euphoria over spot prices, the open interest data tell a different story. On Binance and Bybit, open futures positions remain below the highs of December 2024, signalling less speculative exposure and perhaps latent caution among experienced traders. The market is rising, yes, but leverage is contracting. A combination that could suggest solidity, or just the calm before the next storm.
Bitcoin’s rally has also had a knock-on effect in the corporate world. Strategy (MSTR), already known for turning its balance sheet into a proxy for the price of BTC, has seen its capitalisation rise from $63 billion to $115 billion, a +81% that would put any big tech company to shame. The company strengthened its position with a new 2.1 billion preference share offering, relaunching its Bitcoin accumulation campaign. On the other side of the Pacific, Metaplanet in Japan adopted a similar strategy, raising funds in yen and turning them into BTC. Result? A +220% on the stock in less than two months. Both companies are redefining the role of the listed company: no longer just a creator of value through product or service, but also as a strategic financial vehicle for exposure to Bitcoin.
But as Bitcoin dominates the mainstream and corporations reinvent themselves as cash-flowing crypto funds, behind the scenes the infrastructure is evolving. Base, the layer 2 supported by Coinbase, has been able to turn a moment of weakness into an opportunity. After a drop to 7 million daily transactions, it quickly returned above 10 million. Daily active addresses have also recovered, a sign of a community that has not lost confidence. Credit also goes to the strategic ecosystem built by Coinbase: funds for projects, tools for developers and an institutional appeal that appeals to long-term builders. In DEX, Base has surpassed $1.3 billion in volume in 24 hours, positioning itself as a concrete alternative to both the Ethereum mainnet and centralised exchanges.
This new scenario tells of a market that is changing skin: no longer just volatility and speculative narrative, but sophisticated business models, multi-layered strategies and a progressive integration between crypto and traditional finance. Bitcoin has shone again, but it is no longer alone. It is the centre of gravity of a new economic constellation that links agile layer 2s, bridge companies with built-in leverage, and a geopolitical context that can shift the balance in a tweet. If 2021 was the year of discovery and 2024 the year of survival, 2025 could be remembered as the year when crypto finally stopped asking for permission.
