Bitcoin surged past the US$100,000 mark on Thursday, advancing as much as 7% to US$103,909, its highest level since January. The rally followed President Donald Trump’s announcement of a trade agreement with the United Kingdom and plans for fresh talks between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese officials, moves that rekindled demand for risk assets after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged a day earlier. Institutional buying intensified the move. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust booked an 18-day streak of net subscriptions, lifting year-to-date inflows to almost US$5 billion — enough to eclipse inflows into the world’s largest gold fund. Data compiled from market disclosures show BlackRock purchased about 47,000 bitcoin worth roughly US$4.4 billion near US$95,000 and later added smaller tranches; Fidelity also disclosed a US$35 million purchase. Overall spot bitcoin ETFs have attracted more than US$40 billion this year. Ether outperformed the broader market after developers completed the long-awaited “Pectra” upgrade on 7 May. The software release enables account abstraction via EIP-7702, lets users pay transaction fees in multiple tokens, and raises the maximum effective balance for validators to 2,048 ETH, among other changes aimed at easing network use and reducing Layer-2 costs. The token jumped more than 20% in a single session, topping US$2,400 for the first time since March and posting its strongest daily gain in four years. The twin rallies in bitcoin and ether added roughly US$250 billion to the value of digital assets in 24 hours and lifted other large tokens such as solana, dogecoin and XRP. Analysts say the combination of improving macro sentiment, heavy ETF demand and Ethereum’s technical overhaul has reignited speculation that the market is entering a new bull-cycle phase.