Bitcoin surged past $81,000 in Asian trading Tuesday, up 6.7% on the week, as broader market optimism over easing Iran tensions and renewed AI momentum pushed equities to record highs.
Other major cryptocurrencies also rallied. Solana climbed 3% to $87.35. Dogecoin gained 4% to $0.1158, extending its weekly gain to 14.5%. XRP, BNB, and TRX all traded higher.
Ether was the outlier, down 0.3% over 24 hours despite holding a weekly gain of 3.9% at $2,376. Spot ETH ETF flows turned negative last week, ending a three-week inflow streak.
Wall Street indices closed at all-time highs after President Donald Trump signaled progress toward a final agreement with Iran and announced a pause on Operation Project Freedom. Brent crude fell 1.7% to about $108 a barrel. The dollar weakened against all G-10 peers.
Asian equities hit an all-time high Wednesday, with the MSCI Asia Pacific index up 1.8%. South Korea's Kospi jumped more than 6%, with Samsung Electronics surging 15% to reach a $1 trillion valuation.
Strong earnings from Advanced Micro Devices and Super Micro Computer added to AI-trade momentum, with Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.6%.
A key development came from Strategy. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said the company may sell a portion of its bitcoin holdings-the first such sale ever-to fund dividend payments. Strategy holds 818,334 BTC at an average cost of $75,537.
"We will probably sell some bitcoin to pay a dividend just to inoculate the market and send the message that we did it," Saylor said.
Strategy posted a $12.54 billion Q1 net loss as bitcoin's slide from October's $126,000 peak weighed on mark-to-market accounting. The firm carries roughly $1.5 billion in annual dividend obligations.
MSTR shares fell over 4% in after-hours trading. BTC briefly slipped under $81,000 before recovering.