Bitcoin Climbs to $79,488 on Strong Institutional Demand
Bitcoin climbed to a 12-week high of $79,488 Monday on optimism surrounding the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks,according to Bloomberg, lifting the broader crypto-equity complex as institutional treasury accumulation accelerated across multiple public companies.SoSoValue datashows that CoinShares saw $1.2B in global digital asset product inflows last week, with bitcoin capturing $933M through the U.S.-listed ETF vehicles led by BlackRock(BLK)and Fidelity, suggesting the price move is supported by genuine institutional demand rather than a purely derivatives-driven squeeze. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with "Crypto Currents," daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio.CORPORATE TREASURIES EXPAND ACROSS THREE TOKENS:The day's dominant theme was corporate digital asset accumulation at scale across bitcoin(BTC-USD), ether(ETH-USD), and solana(SOL-USD). Bitmine Immersion Technologies(BMNR)disclosed ina regulatory filingthat it holds 5,078,386 ETH, representing 4.21% of total ether supply, with total crypto and cash holdings of $13.3B. Within those holdings, 3,701,589 ETH is actively staked, generating on-chain yield while tightening the effective liquid float. Strategy(MSTR)disclosed ina filingthat it sold 1.451M shares via its at-the-market offering for $255M in net proceeds during the week of April 20-26 and acquired 3,273 BTC at an average of $77,906, bringing aggregate holdings to 818,334 BTC at a total cost basis of $61.81B. Strive(ASST)disclosed ina company press releasethat it purchased approximately 789 additional BTC, lifting its total treasury to roughly 14,557 BTC alongside $90.5M in cash and $50.3M in Strategy preferred stock, and announced a May 21 "True North: Bitcoin for Business" summit in Oregon targeting CFOs and corporate treasury executives.On the solana front, Solana Company(HSDT)entered a definitive agreement to sell 3,076,922 shares at $2.60 per share in a registered direct offering for approximately $8M in gross proceeds, with net proceeds earmarked for solana treasury accumulation and the investor syndicate led by Mirae Asset and Hashkey Capital. DeFi Development(DFDV)separately confirmed ina company press releasethe completion of its April 24 Reddit "Ask Me Anything" with CEO Joseph Onorati engaging institutional and community investors on its solana treasury strategy. Taken together, the HSDT equity raise and DFDV investor outreach suggest the solana treasury model is entering a second wave of institutional onboarding, following the capital-structure template that bitcoin-focused treasury companies established.INFRASTRUCTURE BUILD-OUT AT CORE SCIENTIFIC:Core Scientific(CORZ)announced ina company press releasea multi-tiered strategy to scale its Pecos, Texas campus to approximately 1.5 gigawatts of gross capacity, roughly 1.0 GW leasable, by converting existing bitcoin mining infrastructure into high-density AI and HPC data center space, with initial capacity targeted for early 2027. The plan is a direct substitution trade, with megawatts previously dedicated to proof-of-work mining being retooled for the longer-duration, higher-margin contracts that hyperscale and AI compute tenants command, a strategic pivot that management has telegraphed since CORZ's emergence from bankruptcy and that today's announcement quantifies for the first time at the Pecos site specifically.CLARITY ACT COULD REACH TRUMP'S DESK BY JUNE:Galaxy Digital(GLXY)CEO Mike Novogratz stated that the CLARITY Act will "get done" in May and reach President Trump's desk in June,according to Cryptopolitan, a timeline that would represent the most consequential U.S. crypto market-structure legislation to date and would expand the addressable operating environment for exchanges, custodians, and token issuers across the listed crypto-equity universe.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin(BTC-USD)was trading at $77,475.96, while ether(ETH-USD)was trading at $2,296.80,.
