August 14, 2025, will become a historic coordinate in the crypto market - Bitcoin strongly broke through $123,600 on Binance exchange, refreshing the historical record set on July 14, with market value soaring to $2.46 trillion, rising 2.83% within 24 hours. Meanwhile, Ethereum reached $4,783, just a step away from its historical peak of $4,868, and the total cryptocurrency market value first stood at $4.26 trillion, simultaneously creating a new historical high.
According to companiesmarketcap data, Bitcoin's market value surpassed Google's parent company Alphabet, reaching $2.458 trillion, ranking fifth in the global mainstream asset ranking.
This surge occurred against the backdrop of strengthened Federal Reserve rate cut expectations, Wall Street capital entering the market, and increased short liquidation pressure, marking a new stage of integration between crypto assets and the traditional financial system.
Macro Turning Point: Inflation Data and Rate Cut Expectations Ignite Risk Asset Carnival
The US July CPI data became the core trigger for this market movement. Data showed inflation rate remained flat month-on-month, rising 2.7% year-on-year, lower than the expected 2.8%, and core CPI increased only 0.2% month-on-month, significantly lower than June's 0.3%.
After the data release, the CME Fed Watch Tool showed the probability of a September rate cut soaring to 93.7%, with a 64.4% probability of a cumulative 50 basis point cut in October. This expectation triggered a two-day decline in the US dollar index, breaking below the 98 mark to 97.75, with the 10-year US Treasury yield simultaneously falling to 4.245%, clearly signaling global liquidity easing.
Traditional financial markets responded swiftly:
Year-to-date gains in major global capital markets
- The three major US stock indexes collectively rose, with the Dow up 1.04%, S&P 500 up 0.32%, and Nasdaq up 0.14%, with S&P and Nasdaq continuing to create new historical closing highs;
- European stock markets rose across the board, with the German DAX30 index up 0.67% and the UK FTSE 100 up 0.19%;
- Asian markets responded synchronously, with the Hang Seng Index rising above the 25,000 point mark, and the Shanghai Composite Index creating a four-year high.
Although Chicago Fed President Goolsbee expressed concerns about tariffs pushing up inflation, he clearly stated that "rate cuts will be inevitable if the job market deteriorates," leaving room for policy shifts.
This macroeconomic environment prompted capital to shift from low-yield assets to the high-volatility crypto market, with Bitcoin's positive correlation with US stocks reaching a historical peak.
Capital Giants Enter: Paradigm Shift from Pension Funds to Wall Street
Systematic institutional fund inflow is the underlying support for this bull market. Trump signed an executive order on August 7, allowing 401(k) retirement accounts to allocate crypto assets like Bitcoin, activating the US $7.3 trillion pension market.
At the corporate level, the top 100 global listed companies have held 951,000 Bitcoins (valued at $126.9 billion), with MicroStrategy holding over 628,000, accounting for 3% of the circulating supply.
Harvard University's endowment fund even spent $116.7 million in Q2 2025 to purchase BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, marking a symbolic event of institutional entry.
ETF fund flow reveals institutional deployment rhythm:
Bitcoin spot ETF saw a single-day net inflow of $65.9 million, accumulating $1.02 billion since last Friday;
Ethereum ETF experienced explosive growth, with a single-day net inflow of $1.02 billion on Tuesday, creating a historical record, and accumulating $523.9 million within the week. Giants like BlackRock and Fidelity continue to increase positions, pushing ETH to break key resistance levels.
Liquidation Storm: Squeeze Market under $2 Billion Short Pressure
Technical breakthroughs formed a positive feedback loop with the derivatives market. The crypto market triggered a large-scale short liquidation cluster while creating new highs.
Coinglass data shows that in the last 24 hours, 104,244 people were liquidated globally, with a total liquidation amount of $403 million, of which short liquidation exceeded $260 million, with the largest single liquidation of $10 million occurring on Bybit - BTCUSD.
It can be observed that market liquidations have been mainly short-sided recently, with short liquidation amounts exceeding $2 billion in the past week.
The current market structure shows typical bull market dominance:
Daily Bollinger Bands' three tracks are simultaneously moving upward, MACD yang columns continue to expand, and KDJ indicator shows a golden cross at high levels;
Key support levels have moved up to $118,800-120,500, and if it stabilizes above $130,000, it will open up space towards $140,000-150,000.
Ethereum also shows a step-like rise, with a significant consecutive yang structure on the hourly line, and each pullback becoming a new buying point. Technical analysts predict it may challenge $6,000 in the coming months.
Altcoin Season Begins: Value Spillover in the Tokenization Wave
Bitcoin's market dominance (BTC.D) dropped 3.98% in the past week, now at 59.32%. During the same period, total crypto market value rose 9.08%, non-Bitcoin total market value (TOTAL 2) increased 16.18%, and total market value excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum (TOTAL 3) rose 10.52%.
It can be observed that Bitcoin and Ethereum's leading effect is spreading to the altcoin market.
Bitwise Asset Management indicated that ETH, SOL, XRP, and LINK will be core beneficiaries of the asset tokenization trend.
After Grayscale included the meme coin BONK in its asset list, DOGE, PEPE, and other MEME tokens rose over 10% in a single day, with ZORA surging 27.35% to a new high.
It can be expected that the altcoin season will soon explode.
Conclusion: Asset Allocation Revolution in a New Paradigm
Bitcoin breaking $123,600 is not just a price record refresh, but a milestone in the fusion of traditional financial systems and crypto ecology. Systematic allocation of Bitcoin by pension funds, university endowments, and listed companies' balance sheets, along with Ethereum's infrastructure position in asset tokenization, have reconstructed global capital flow paths. Although short-term caution is needed against leverage liquidation and technical pullbacks, the three major engines of Fed rate cut cycle, regulatory framework improvement, and institutional holding trends will continue to push crypto market value towards $5 trillion. When the Chicago Mercantile Exchange began trading Bitcoin futures contracts, Bitcoin was seen as a marginal asset; now, it is becoming a core piece of the global liquidity landscape.
Historical experience shows that cognitive boundaries determine the thickness of wealth - most people miss the pump or suffer liquidation due to panic or greed, and this time, Wall Street's entry ticket has been embedded in the immutable code of the blockchain.
