Bitcoin price surged above $81,000 for the first time since January 2026.
Bitcoin price broke above $81,000 during Asian trading hours and early U.S. hours today, its highest price since late January and the latest sign that the market has moved past a brutal first-quarter stretch that bottomed near $60,000.
The move came on the back of several forces hitting at once: a flood of institutional money into ETFs, a shift in Middle East tensions, and a derivatives market that had been loading up for a run past $80,000 for weeks.
The structural setup for this was built in April. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $2.44 billion in net inflows last month — the strongest monthly figure since October 2025, when Bitcoin price hit its $126,000 all-time high. BlackRock’s IBIT alone captured $1.71 billion of that total, a 70% market share that keeps widening the gap between the fund and every other ETF in the space.
Strategy, the Michael Saylor-led firm, also confirmed several massive Bitcoin purchases in April, bringing its total holdings to 818,334 BTC.
