Bitcoin Reclaimed $100,000 as Trade Fears Eased

Bitcoin returned to six figures

Bitcoin traded above $100,000 on May 8, 2025 for the first time since early February, marking a recovery from the selloff that had followed January’s record and the subsequent escalation of global trade tensions.

Coinbase Exchange’s BTC-USD candle for the 24-hour UTC session beginning at 00:00 on May 8 provides a venue-specific primary record. It shows an opening price of $97,058.33, a session low of $96,888.25, a high of $104,176.05 and a closing price of $103,253.49. The close was 6.38% above the open, a Coinburn calculation using those two Coinbase observations. Coinbase recorded approximately 15,379.44 BTC in volume for that candle.

Those figures describe one dollar-denominated spot market and one UTC measurement window. They are not a universal cryptocurrency closing price. Bitcoin trades continuously across exchanges, and differences in liquidity, trade sequencing, currency pairs and daily boundaries produce different highs, closes and percentage changes.

Contemporaneous reports nevertheless confirm that the threshold was crossed broadly enough to constitute a market event. Bloomberg reported at 15:24 UTC on May 8 that bitcoin had advanced as much as 4.9% to $101,519. Reuters reported a midday price of $101,402.19, up 4.8% on its stated daily comparison. The differing measurements are consistent with observations taken at different times and through different market-data systems.

A macro-driven session, with limits on causation

The move coincided with the United States and United Kingdom announcing the general terms of an Economic Prosperity Deal on May 8. The White House said the baseline reciprocal tariff rate of 10% would remain while describing new arrangements for automobiles, steel, aluminum and agricultural trade. The announcement did not eliminate the wider tariff dispute or complete every element of the bilateral agreement.

Bloomberg and Reuters both connected bitcoin’s rally to expectations that trade tensions might ease. That was a contemporaneous market interpretation, not proof that the trade announcement caused a particular bitcoin transaction or the entire daily gain. Crypto prices can react simultaneously to positioning, liquidations, fund flows, derivatives activity and changes in broader risk appetite.

A Coinbase Institutional market note published on May 9 supplied an additional snapshot measured at 4 p.m. EDT on May 8. It listed bitcoin at $101,550, up 5.14% over 24 hours, and ether at $2,119, up 18.29%. The note characterized the week’s crypto advance as responding to the U.S.-UK announcement and continued inflows into U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Its table was an institutional research snapshot rather than an official consolidated close, and the page identified Bloomberg as the source for the displayed cross-asset overview.

Why the threshold mattered

Crossing $100,000 restored a six-figure bitcoin price after roughly three months below that level. It also returned bitcoin to positive territory for 2025 on Reuters’ event-day calculation, although the asset remained below the January record above $109,000 cited in the corrected Reuters report.

The milestone was psychologically and institutionally visible, but it did not itself establish a new support level, prove that ETF demand caused the rally or guarantee that the recovery would continue. A round-number crossing is evidence of trades at or above that price, not evidence about intrinsic value or future returns.

What the May 8 record supports

The strongest conclusion is narrow: Coinbase’s primary market record and multiple contemporaneous reports establish that bitcoin exceeded $100,000 on May 8, 2025. The exact intraday level and percentage gain depend on venue, timestamp and comparison window. Explanations centered on improving trade sentiment were plausible and widely reported on May 8, but they remained interpretations rather than experimentally verifiable attribution.