Crypto
A sign promotes the Bitcoin 2025 convention
A sign promotes the Bitcoin 2025 convention (George Rose/Getty Images)

Bitcoin hits another new all-time high

A year ago, bitcoin’s price was around $57,000.

In just under two months since it first crossed $123,000, bitcoin smashed another record, crossing $123,600 for the first time.

A year ago, bitcoin’s price was around $57,000, representing a 117% jump.

Cory Klippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, told Sherwood News that with global debt at record highs and fiat currencies under pressure, bitcoin is increasingly seen as a liquid, non-sovereign reserve asset. 

“We’re watching a shift from speculative trade to strategic allocation, and that’s what will push price beyond prior highs,” he said.

Klippsten added that there’s also a new wave of capital from institutions that ignored bitcoin’s last cycle. 

“Spot bitcoin ETFs have made it possible for pensions, RIAs, and insurance companies to allocate without changing their investing habits. That structural change in access is a major tailwind,” he said.

Bitcoin has a $2.4 trillion market cap, surpassing Amazon’s $2.39 trillion market cap.

Willem Schroé, CEO of Botanix Labs, told Sherwood that bitcoin’s price momentum this week reflects growing global conviction, adding that a potential Fed rate cut is boosting demand from investors for emerging asset classes.

“Strong activity across both US and Asian markets, combined with the rise of bitcoin treasuries, shows this is more than a short-term trend,” Schroé said. “I see this as a signal that bitcoin is evolving from a passive store of value into programmable infrastructure for global finance.”

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Meme coins are low-key back to start the year, with pepe taking the early lead in 2026 gains

The meme-based pepe is the fastest horse in the crypto race in the new year so far, with the price of the cryptocurrency increasing 34% in the last 24 hours.

The price swing resulted in the liquidation of nearly $9.9 million worth of pepe short positions in the last 24 hours, data from CoinGlass shows. 

The frog-based coin has seen a 24-hour trading volume of nearly $1.6 billion and is not the only meme coin outpacing the broader crypto market.

Dogecoin, shiba inu, and PUMP have each risen between 8.4% and 10.9% in the last 24 hours, joining pepe as the top gainers in the period, a sign of life for meme tokens, which as a category lost more than half their value last year. 

$1.2B

XRP ETFs have now crossed $1 billion in assets since the funds launched, according to SoSoValue, which shows total assets of $1.18 billion.

In September, the SEC approved generic listing standards, which paved the way for speedier listings and opened the floodgates for these products, and shortly after, Rex-Osprey launched the first spot XRP ETF available in the US.

Canary followed suit in November, launching an ETF trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker XRPC, which saw a record $58.5 million in trading volume on its first day. It’s the largest XRP ETF in the US, with $342 million in assets.

Grayscale, Bitwise, and Franklin Templeton also launched their own XRP ETFs in November. On December 11, 21Shares joined the XRP fund party.

It’s a noteworthy green shoot in the crypto space, as bitcoin and its ETFs have struggled, and XRP itself is down nearly 15% over the past month.

Jake Hanley, managing director and senior portfolio specialist at Teucrium Investment Advisors — which launched the first-ever XRP-based ETF in April, the 2x Long Daily XRP ETF — told Sherwood News that he is not surprised to see this level of interest in the XRP ETFs.

“We have long held that XRP and the Ripple ecosystem present a unique investment case among crypto assets. Crossing the $1 billion mark is yet another signal of the significant vote of confidence investors have in this increasingly important asset and ecosystem,” Hanley said.

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Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, or Robinhood Money, LLC.