Bitcoin ($BTC) has made history by achieving its highest weekly closing price ever, pushing its market capitalisation above $2 trillion. In doing so, it has overtaken Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to become the sixth most valuable asset globally.
As Bitcoin’s price flirted with record highs, investors, analysts, and developers have taken notice.
While some see it as a sign of increased trust in digital assets, others are raising concerns about network congestion, transaction fees, and the future role of Bitcoin in a rapidly changing market.
Bitcoin ended the week on a high note with a record weekly close above $106,000. This pushed its total market capitalisation to $2.038 trillion—just enough to move ahead of Alphabet, which stood at $2.02 trillion.
During the past 24 hours, Bitcoin’s market cap even hit a peak of $2.11 trillion as the price briefly reached $106,847.
However, the value dipped afterwards, landing at $103,146 at press time, showing a small decline of 0.7% over the same period.
Bitcoin now ranks just behind some of the world’s most powerful companies and assets. Gold holds the top spot with a market cap of $21.70 trillion.
It is followed by Microsoft at $3.37 trillion, Nvidia at $3.30 trillion, Apple at $3.155 trillion, and Amazon at $2.182 trillion.
Unlike Alphabet, which is a tech company backed by business operations and services like Google Search, YouTube, and Google Cloud, Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency. It exists entirely online and operates around the clock.
This difference may have worked in Bitcoin’s favour. Its surge past Alphabet occurred over the weekend, a time when traditional stock markets like NASDAQ are closed.
With no such limitations, Bitcoin continued trading and gained momentum while Alphabet’s stock price remained unchanged until markets reopened.
Still, the digital currency market remains unpredictable. Analysts caution that the lead may be temporary as Bitcoin faces capital outflows going into the new trading week.
What’s driving Bitcoin’s recent surge?
There is no single event that triggered Bitcoin’s climb to nearly $107,000, but several factors likely contributed.
One key reason is the growing interest in Bitcoin as a financial safe haven. Some investors are turning to the digital currency in response to global economic concerns, particularly after Moody’s downgraded the US sovereign credit rating.
In addition, improving trade relations have slightly boosted investor confidence, allowing more capital to flow into riskier assets like Bitcoin.
Another major factor is the increase in investment through Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In the past week alone, US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs received $608 million in net inflows.
This suggests that more traditional investors are getting exposure to Bitcoin through regulated channels, without directly holding the asset themselves.
Alphabet, meanwhile, had its own strong week in the markets, with shares climbing more than 5% to close at $167.43. But despite this growth, it wasn’t enough to keep the tech giant ahead of Bitcoin in market value terms.
While Bitcoin’s price has gone up, so have its transaction fees. As per reports, the average fee over the past seven days is now $2.40, up $1 since early May.
This is the highest level for 2025 so far. It shows a rise in demand for the limited space available in each Bitcoin block.
Interestingly, even though fees are up, the number of daily transactions has dropped. On 22 April, Bitcoin processed 507,000 transactions. That number has since decreased by 35%, now sitting at around 330,000.
At the same time, more Bitcoin is being locked away in long-term wallets. Data from Glassnode shows that the amount of Bitcoin considered “illiquid” (meaning it sits idle in wallets that rarely spend) has hit a new all-time high.
This reduction in available supply, combined with strong demand, could push prices even higher in the future.
Bitcoin’s dominance—its share of the total cryptocurrency market—has also seen a small rise after dipping earlier this month.
This indicates that the recent pullback may have been caused by liquidity problems rather than a broader shift towards alternative cryptocurrencies.
Metaplanet doubles down as debate over BTC’s purpose grows
As the price of Bitcoin continues to fluctuate near its all-time highs, companies are making big moves to increase their holdings.
One standout is Japan-based investment firm Metaplanet, which has added another 1,004 Bitcoin to its portfolio, spending around $104.3 million.
This is Metaplanet’s second-largest purchase to date. The company now holds 7,800 Bitcoin, worth about $806 million based on current prices.
It is the largest corporate Bitcoin holder in Asia and ranks 11th globally, according to Bitcointreasuries.net.
Metaplanet’s aim is to hit 10,000 BTC by the end of 2025. This latest purchase brings the firm 78% of the way towards that goal. CEO Simon Gerovich confirmed the acquisition in a press release and said the firm remains committed to its Bitcoin strategy.
The company raises funds using debt instruments such as ordinary bonds and moving strike warrants. Just last week, it completed its 15th bond issuance, securing another $15 million.
In the first quarter of 2025, Metaplanet reported revenue of ¥877 million (around $6 million), with Bitcoin accounting for 88% of that total.
The company has seen 300% quarter-over-quarter growth from its BTC holdings and is expecting a total return of more than 230% by the end of the year.
Metaplanet is often compared to US-based MicroStrategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder in the world.
MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor, currently holds 568,840 BTC. Both companies follow a similar strategy—using traditional financial tools to raise funds for buying Bitcoin.
Investor interest in Metaplanet is also rising. The number of shareholders has jumped 500% over the past year, now standing at 64,000.
The company’s stock, listed under ticker 3350.T, has risen nearly 71% since January and gained another 12.2% following news of the latest Bitcoin purchase.
However, not all news is positive. A growing debate is unfolding within the Bitcoin developer community over the use of the network for non-monetary purposes.
The controversy centres around “inscriptions”—data, such as JPEG files or non-fungible tokens (NFTs), stored on the blockchain. Critics argue these transactions clog the network and drive up fees.
One of those critics is pseudonymous developer GrassFedBitcoin, who raised concerns on GitHub about a proposal (pull request #28408) that would allow node operators to filter out these non-financial inscriptions.
He said, “No one running a node wants to relay inscriptions,” arguing that the network was never meant to support arbitrary data storage.
Economist and author of ‘The Bitcoin Standard’, Saifedean Ammous, backed the proposal and even offered to fund developers working to limit inscription spam.
“Fighting spam is not censorship”, Ammous said, adding that node operators already have the right to reject certain types of transactions. He compared the problem to email spam, saying it’s a challenge worth tackling.
But others disagree. The CEO of Bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream, Adam Back, warned that trying to filter inscriptions could lead to an endless “arms race,” where spammers simply find new ways to work around the filters.
This highlights a core tension within the Bitcoin ecosystem—balancing the network’s open, permissionless nature with efforts to keep it efficient and focused on its role as a monetary system.
