Bitcoin Blasts Past $118K: It's Not The Fed Or Stocks, It's ETFs And Corporate Cash!

Hold onto your hats, crypto fans! Bitcoin just rocketed past $118,000 and it's not because of the Fed or stock market moves. Nope, the real drivers? Spot ETF demand and companies stashing BTC in their treasuries. And guess what? Altcoins are riding the wave right behind!

On July 11, Bitcoin (BTC) smashed through its old high of $116,000, hitting a mind-blowing $118,872 before chilling at $117,300. Sure, it's only a 3% daily bump, but trust me, the excitement is off the charts! Ethereum (ETH) outran BTC with a 7% jump, breaking $3,000 for the first time since February. And memecoins? Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) are partying with double-digit gains!

Thomas Perfumo, Kraken's global economist, is calling it: Bitcoin's breaking out of its range and venturing into uncharted territory. Over $1 billion in short positions got wiped out in the last day alone! And with Bitcoin's dominance slipping just a bit, it's clear the altcoins are stealing the show.

"The strength in U.S. stocks, hitting or near their peaks, is screaming risk-on vibes. It's the perfect playground for crypto," Perfumo declared on Friday.

Bitcoin's dominance is down to 54%, and we're seeing something wild: institutions piling in and derivatives markets going nuts, pushing gains everywhere, not just at the top. Forget about macro moves—the real question is whether crypto's market is now doing its own thing, no longer tied to the old triggers.

Market Moves, Not Macro, Are Fueling This Rally

This surge isn't like the ones before. It's not about central banks or macro madness. It's all about what's happening inside the crypto world itself, especially the massive demand for spot ETFs.

On Thursday, Bitcoin ETFs saw their biggest day ever in 2025, raking in a whopping $1.18 billion. Ethereum ETFs weren't far behind, pulling in $383 million in their second-best day of the year. These aren't just bets or side trades—they're straight-up, heavy-duty investments in the real deal.

Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen, is seeing it clearly.

"This isn't your typical macro-driven rally; it's something special. But let's be real, recent U.S. policy moves like more spending and expected rate cuts are setting a pretty sweet stage for Bitcoin. We're seeing more and more companies adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets, showing just how much faith they have in BTC," he said.

Sondergaard points out that Bitcoin blasting through those key levels and staying there is what kicked off this epic market-wide rally.

So, what's next? It all comes down to whether this can keep going. Past rallies had the wind of macro trends behind them. This one? It's testing if crypto's own mechanics—like ETF flows, corporate adoption, and derivatives—can keep the party going. If they can, we might be looking at a whole new world, where crypto plays by its own rules.