Bitcoin Hits $120,000 All-Time High Driven by Institutional Inflows

Bitcoin (BTC) reached a new all-time high of $120,000 on Coinbase at 2:47 am on July 14, marking a 13% increase for the month and closing its third consecutive green monthly candle. This surge was driven by significant institutional inflows, particularly from BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), IBIT, which hit a record $83 billion in assets under management (AUM). IBIT’s AUM has tripled in just about 200 trading days, a milestone that took the gold ETF, GLD, over 15 years to accomplish. The spot ETF currently holds over 700,000 BTC, surpassing Strategy by nearly 100,000 BTC.

One onchain metric suggests that Bitcoin hasn’t entered peak euphoria yet. The Long-Term Holder Net Unrealized Profit/Loss, a measure of whether long-term holders are sitting on major profits, remains at 0.69, below the 0.75 level historically linked with overheating markets. Compared to the last cycle, which saw 228 days above that threshold, this cycle has only spent about 30 days in that zone, hinting at higher price targets.

Bitcoin’s network activity has been steadily increasing without signs of profit-taking or panic. Daily average transactions climbed from 340,000 to 364,000 over the past two days, but remain below the 530,000–666,000 peaks seen during its previous market tops. This reflects a composed market environment and strengthens both the fundamental and technical bullish signal. Meanwhile, accumulator addresses, wallets that consistently acquire BTC without significant outflows, have ramped up significantly over the past month. These wallets now hold 250,000 BTC, the highest level of 2024. The 30-day demand has jumped 71%, up from 148,000 BTC in late June, reflecting renewed conviction among long-term buyers.