Bitcoin closes in on $100,000 in surprise surge

New Year, new hope for Bitcoin. After several months of sputtering, Bitcoin is back on the rise. On Wednesday, the original cryptocurrency surpassed $97,000 for the first time in two months and is up more than 6% in the last week. 

The jump in Bitcoin came after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell issued a remarkable statement that accused President Donald Trump’s administration of directing a baseless criminal investigation at him in order to intimidate the agency. Meanwhile, the price of gold and other precious metals shot up as investors fled towards safe haven assets. 

In addition to the uncertainty over the Fed’s independence, the latest inflation numbers appear to be driving the recent Bitcoin surge. 

“The global macro backdrop is supportive as CPI came in cool on Tuesday, amidst generalized concerns about Fed independence following Powell’s speech, which put pressure on the dollar, which is generally negatively correlated to Bitcoin,” said Russell Thompson, chief investment officer at Hilbert Group.

Smaller cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana have also experienced a boost of late. The former is up more than 4% in the last week to about $3,338, and the latter increased more than 3% during that time to its current price of roughly $144. 

By all accounts, 2025 was a disappointing year for Bitcoin. Despite more favorable policies from the Trump administration, most notably the Genius Act signed in July, the original cryptocurrency’s price dropped more than 6% on the year. That’s in stark contrast to the S&P 500, which grew at a rate of about 17% during that time. 

In early October, Bitcoin reached its all-time high price of more than $126,000, but the final three months of 2025 erased those gains and then some. The original cryptocurrency plummeted to $84,000 in late November, a roughly 33% drop from its high. Much of this decline was sustained after what has been termed the “October flash crash”, the day traders lost $19 billion in assets. 

While the last quarter of 2025 was one to forget for Bitcoin, its price is off to an auspicious beginning in 2026. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com