Bitcoin Surges 5% to $105,800 as Crypto Market Sees M&A Boom

In May, the cryptocurrency market witnessed significant developments, including mergers and acquisitions, highly anticipated public listings in the US, and a notable surge in the price of Bitcoin (BTC). The month has also seen the entry of a milestone into the S&P 500 index.

Matthew Sigel, managing VanEck’s new Onchain Economy ETF (NODE), highlighted that the current environment is conducive to crypto equity diversification. He attributed this to the tailwinds from the rising bitcoin price and financial deregulation efforts by the Trump administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Sigel noted that equity capital markets are currently wide open for anything crypto-related, including Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). He predicted that if bitcoin maintains its current level, there will be significant capital formation in the space over the next month.

Although BTC has not yet reached the peak of approximately $109,000 it hit in January, its level above $106,000 marked the asset’s highest weekly close. At 2:30 p.m. ET, BTC was hovering around $105,800.

Despite news of a security exploit and an SEC investigation, Coinbase stock has shown resilience, rising by 2% over the past five days. This counteracts more bullish updates regarding its pending Deribit acquisition and inclusion in the S&P 500. Various Wall Street analysts considered COIN’s initial dip on the breach news as overblown, with Oppenheimer and Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirming buy ratings. An IMD report ranked Coinbase fifth in financial services, behind JPMorgan Chase and ahead of insurance giant Progressive. The report noted that Coinbase’s leapfrogging of financial players like HSBC and UBS is due to tokenized asset custody, which counts toward both growth expectations and innovation yield, two factors where many universal banks lag.

Sigel emphasized the importance of diversification in the crypto market. NODE invested in about 70 securities from the start, exceeding its guidance of 30-60 and with a number of positions around 1%. After VanEck’s spot bitcoin ETF, top holdings include COIN, Robinhood (which recently acquired Canada-based WonderFi), Galaxy Digital (listed on the Nasdaq last week), Mercado Libre, and Strategy.

Michael Saylor-led firm MSTR bought 7,390 more bitcoin last week, bringing its total holdings to 576,230 BTC. Other companies continue to follow suit. Metaplanet has accelerated its bitcoin purchases, revealing its latest acquisition of 1,004 BTC on Monday. The company has nearly doubled its BTC stack over the last seven weeks, from 4,046 on March 31 to 7,800 BTC.

Nasdaq-listed DigiAsia indicated in a news release that its board of directors approved a plan to create a bitcoin treasury reserve. The company is seeking a $100 million capital raise to build a BTC position and execute “crypto-based yield strategies to optimize treasury performance.”

Sigel noted that many of the newly-forming “bitcoin balance sheet companies” are too small for institutional equity investors and will need to do follow-on deals to grow. He added that it will be interesting to see how many of these deals can get done if bitcoin takes a pause for any reason, highlighting the high volatility of the market.

YouHodler markets chief Ruslan Lienkha observed that BTC’s latest price action, holding above $100,000 for 11 days and counting, appears to be a consolidation phase marked by accumulation. This could potentially set the stage for another leg higher, leading to a new all-time high. Bitcoin ETF inflows remain strong, with $667 million entering the US products yesterday. Lienkha views the $90k-$110k range as a psychologically and technically important price corridor that BTC would be supported at, even following a retreat from a possible new peak.