Bitcoin held near $65,000 on Friday despite Brent crude surging to $97.66 per barrel, its highest level since mid-May, as the Iran conflict persists and traditional markets remain muted. According to latest reports, BTC rose toward $65,000 and ether gained 0.6% as crypto markets demonstrated remarkable resilience. The recovery represents one of the more encouraging signals bulls have had in weeks, as previous oil spikes have rattled risk assets including cryptocurrency markets. Traditional markets are muted, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 index futures both marginally positive and gold holding above $4,000, while the Dollar Index has edged slightly lower. This broad-based strength across digital assets suggests growing institutional confidence in crypto's ability to weather macroeconomic volatility.
Bond traders have turned bearish on Bitcoin as they now expect the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates again, with the first hike likely by December 2025. According to Bloomberg's rate outlook, markets now price a quarter-point hike as likely by September or October and all but certain by December. Latest Reuters reports confirm this trend, with Fed funds futures traders currently seeing a 32% chance of a rate hike when the central bank concludes its two-day meeting on July 29. The two-year Treasury yield reached 4.301% on Wednesday, its highest level in more than a year, while the 10-year yield approached 4.66%. This represents a rare risk for Bitcoin, as the Fed has not raised rates since 2023, making any fresh increase a significant development for cryptocurrency markets.
The Federal Reserve directly linked some of the recent inflation pressure to artificial intelligence investment in the minutes of its June meeting. Officials said strong demand for data centers, electricity and high-tech equipment was pushing up prices, and warned that AI investment could keep economic growth above its sustainable rate, making inflation more persistent. Alphabet raised its expected 2026 capital spending to between $195 billion and $205 billion after Google Cloud revenue jumped 82% in the latest quarter, while Microsoft expects to spend around $190 billion this calendar year, including roughly $25 billion caused by higher component prices. Nvidia reported that data-center revenue rose 92% year-on-year to $75.2 billion in its latest quarter, with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh noting that high-tech equipment investment had grown by nearly 25% over the year to the first quarter.
Despite Bitcoin's consolidation near $65,000, major altcoins showed strength with HYPE leading the altcoin market for the second consecutive session, rising 2.4% to $58.93 as it rebuilds with a series of higher lows since its July pullback. AI tokens FET and NEAR posted gains of 2.23% and 1.38% respectively, offering tentative signs of stabilization after weeks of underperformance. Ether mirrored bitcoin's gain, rising as much as 1.6%, while MORPHO extended one of the more consistent DeFi runs of the month. However, the broader 24-hour picture tells a more cautious story, with WLFI, AVAX, HBAR and SUI all down between 4% and 10% over the past day, a reminder that the intraday recovery masks lingering weakness across portions of the altcoin market. Lighter (LIT) fell a further 1.32%, extending a slide that has now unwound close to 20% from its July peak as profit-taking continues following its 200%-plus rally between May and early July.
Institutional momentum in cryptocurrency is accelerating rapidly, with 84% of senior decision-makers across wealth management, asset management, capital markets and digital asset firms now viewing tokenization as strategically important to their organization, according to Broadridge Financial Solutions' inaugural Tokenization Pulse Survey. Sixty-eight percent expect tokenization to partially reshape financial markets within three to five years, with 69% planning to blend digital capabilities into existing infrastructure rather than build separate systems. More than nine in ten expect tokenized and traditional assets to coexist indefinitely, and roughly a third plan to raise tokenization spending by at least a quarter over the next two years. E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley has completed the rollout of spot crypto trading, allowing eligible clients to buy, sell and hold bitcoin, ethereum and solana through a linked account with digital asset infrastructure provider Zero Hash at a 50 basis point fee.
