In This Article
Bitcoin (BTC) has posted a new all-time high of around $120,000, pushing it past its previous high achieved in May 2025, which was $111,999. Traders are claiming it is the beginning of another bull market and that it is being led by institutional investment interest.
Although prices seemed to be sticking around $110,000, the liquidation of $200m in shorts, near a key resistance marker, finally pushed it over that level and above the $112,000 mark.
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s (ETH) price has risen more than 6% on the day, but it is Stellar (XLM) that has posted the best gains among cryptocurrency’s biggest coins. The XLM price has risen more than 11% in the past 24 hours and more than 20% over the last week. The cryptocurrency’s core update has been cited as the primary reason for its burst.
Cryptocurrency Opinions
Cryptocurrency continues to divide opinion. It has seen utility in ecommerce, offshore business, and for online gambling and crypto poker. Its lightning-fast transactions and low overseas transfer fees make it especially popular. But blockchain-based digital currencies do still have their detractors. Some financial experts warn against its use, due to its volatility, lack of intrinsic value, and the prevalence of scams and illegal activity.
GMX Loss
Such illegal activity includes the hacking of exchanges and other sites and businesses within the crypto industry. Today, it has emerged that the decentralized exchange GMX has had $40m of Bitcoin and Ethereum drained from its protocol. The exchange said the exploit had taken place on the original version of its exchange, GMX V1, which was launched to the public in 2021. Trading on that particular exchange has now been stopped. GMX has also put GLP minting on hold.
GLP is the exchange’s token, which can be used by investors to earn liquidity bonuses. Investors can buy GLP using Ethereum or Bitcoin, and the funds from the swap are then pooled together and used for increased liquidity on the exchange, but the money held that would allow investors to trade their tokens back to BTC and ETH has effectively been stolen. The funds included $10m each of Bitcoin and USDC, $8.5m of Ethereum, and $1m of USDT.
A 10% White Hat Bounty On Offer
To facilitate as quick a resolution as possible, GMX has offered the hackers a 10% white hat bounty, saying they would not take any legal action and would give the hackers 10%, or approximately $4m, if they returned the funds within 48 hours. The group sent an on-chain message stating: “We want to offer a 10% white-hat bounty for the return of the exploited funds. If the remaining 90% of funds are returned within 48 hours, we commit to pursuing no further legal action” before providing contact details for the hackers.
When pressed on whether users would receive refunds for lost money, GMX said they would address the situation once an investigation was completed and the problem was rectified.
Cryptocurrency Hacks
This won’t be the last cryptocurrency hack. It certainly isn’t the first, and it is relatively minor when compared to an attack in February. On that occasion, a Bybit employee’s workstation was compromised, and $1.4bn of crypto was lost. It was the biggest crypto hack of all time, and it highlights the importance of reliable security within the industry.
Although crypto is designed to be secure, there are ways around the cryptography it uses, not least by using smart contracts’ features against them. In this latest instance, hackers used an exploit known as a re-entrancy vulnerability in which a hacker posts multiple calls to a smart contract, fooling it into calculating an inaccurate balance.
Bitcoin Posts New High
In the past, news of an attack of this type would have caused the cryptocurrency market to experience significant price drops. But the market has matured and grown stronger in recent years. Even against the backdrop of a reasonably significant $40m hack, Bitcoin managed to post its highest ever prices.
On Wednesday afternoon, Bitcoin reached $112,050 after trading in a tight range over the past few weeks. Although traders and some analysts will be celebrating the new high, it is worth noting that the digital asset is only up 2% in the past month. It is notable, however, for having posted its new price at virtually the same time as Nvidia became the first company to achieve a $4tn market capitalization.
Cryptocurrency is benefiting from inflows of institutional investor cash, with billions of dollars flooding into Bitcoin ETFs. It is also set for more publicity next week, when Crypto Week hits DC. Analysts expect prices to continue to rise, although the summer months can be quiet in the crypto investment space.
BTC Prices
Bitcoin is currently trading at $111,171.96, down slightly from its all-time high but up 2% in the past 24 hours. It is only up marginally in the past month, but bullish investors now expect it to move on and print new $120,000 prices.
Ripple Prices
Wednesday also saw more positive moves for Ripple. At the beginning of this month, Ripple opted for BNY Mellon as its custodian of the
Ripple USD stablecoin. RLUSD has now gone live on Ethereum and XRPL blockchains. Today’s price gains have seen XRP price break above the neckline of an inverse head and shoulders pattern, pointing to 20% gains in the coming days. Investors are targeting $2.87 as the upper target for this pattern. XRP is currently trading at $2.41, up 4.71% in the past 24 hours and just over 7% in the past week.
Ripple’s Regulatory Role
Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, is set to testify to the Senate this week, urging them to differentiate between cryptocurrencies like Ripple and traditional securities.
Posting on X, Garlinghouse wrote: “I am honored to be invited to testify in front of the Senate Banking Committee this Wednesday on the need for passing crypto market structure legislation.”
The hearing potentially puts Ripple, which is often described as a bridge between traditional and Web 3.0 assets, at the forefront of crypto market developments. Some traders claim that Ripple’s price will soon rise to $1,000, especially on the back of Garlinghouse’s potential involvement in the creation of cryptocurrency legislation in the US.
Stellar Lumens
But it is Stellar (XLM) that has performed best in the past 24 hours. It is currently trading at $0.2876 but reached a high of $0.296 earlier in the day. Its current price is up 11% in the past 24 hours, and 20% in the past week, and is Stellar’s highest price since May.
Stellar was already enjoying positive moves when its core update was launched, and the roll-out helped reinforce positive sentiment for the maturity and development of the network.
Conclusion
Bitcoin posted a new all-time high, despite news of a $40m decentralized exchange hack. Ripple is realizing gains as its CEO talks regulatory requirements with Congress, but it is Stellar that has posted the best daily performance thanks to the launch of its latest core update.
