Bitcoin pushed past the six-figure mark for the first time in over two months, coming within a hair of $104,000 in early Asian hours Saturday, as crypto markets staged a sharp rebound on improving macro sentiment and Ethereum’s latest network upgrade.

Dogecoin (DOGE) led altcoin gains with a 10% rally, while ether (ETH) rose 3.5% following the successful implementation of its long-awaited Pectra upgrade, bringing weekly gains over 30%.Other majors including Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), xrp (XRP) and BNB Chain’s BNB rose between 2-6%, driven by a shift in investor sentiment from caution to risk-on.

The move follows a string of pro-crypto developments in the U.S. this week. On Wednesday, New Hampshire passed a bill allowing the state to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve. Arizona followed suit a day later with its own legislation supporting a crypto reserve. The state-level momentum comes as political leaders lean further into digital asset policy ahead of the November election.

President Donald Trump’s bullish remarks on upcoming U.S.-China trade talks also helped ease market jitters. The comments coincided with the U.S. and U.K. signing a fresh trade agreement that will remove reciprocal tariffs and lower duties on American goods — further lifting sentiment across equities and crypto alike.

“President Trump’s optimistic outlook on this weekend’s China trade talks is easing fears of an escalating trade war, encouraging traders to shift capital back into asset classes like cryptocurrencies,” said Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, in a message to CoinDesk. “This could very well drive Bitcoin back towards its all-time high and potentially surpass it.”

BTC trades about 5% below its January record high of over $108,700 as of European morning hours on Saturday.

Analysts say the recent moves mark a decisive break from the sluggish price action that plagued altcoins through much of March and April.

“Traders believe the crypto industry may have finally found its second wind as a hedge against market uncertainty,” Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research, told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat.“Investors are changing their perspectives on crypto now that altcoins have departed from a negative trend and found buying pressure from a renewed risk-on sentiment,” Ruck added.

Ethereum’s 30% rally this week is also being attributed to growing institutional interest and the momentum behind its Pectra upgrade, which introduces long-anticipated execution layer reforms aimed at boosting efficiency and scalability.

“The upgrade provides reforms Ethereum desperately needs to cement its position as a leading chain amidst growing competition,” BTSE’s Mei said. “Given that Ethereum is trading well below its all-time high, we could see substantial upside in the coming weeks and months, especially as macro fears ease and institutions become more willing to allocate towards crypto and crypto ETFs.”

Still, traders are watching this weekend’s U.S.-China trade negotiations closely. Talks are set to begin later on Saturday in Switzerland, and any signs of stalemate or renewed tension could undercut the current rally.

Tech titan Meta (META) has reportedly been looking into the possibility of a return to the stablecoin market after having spurred a U.S. regulatory backlash from its efforts in years past, and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren told CoinDesk that the pending legislation to govern stablecoins needs to insist that’s not possible.

A high-stakes crypto bill to set up U.S. rules for stablecoins such as Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC was virtually sailing through the Senate until Democrats — including some who had supported the effort in committee — rose against it in recent days and halted the bill’s progress on the Senate floor this week. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act needs to change to prevent the large corporations from issuing their own money, Warren said.

«The Senate must fix the GENIUS Act so it prohibits Big Tech companies and other commercial giants from owning or affiliating with stablecoin companies,» the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement to CoinDesk. «No Senator should vote to make it easier for Big Tech to pry into our financial transactions or choke off small businesses and political adversaries from the payments system.»

Six years ago, Meta sought to launch its own crypto stablecoin, Libra (later called Diem), and nearly made it to the finish line before an uproar from certain regulators and lawmakers derailed the project. She argued that Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, whose company gave $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, is trying to get back into the business, and she called for Zuckerberg «to explain to Congress if this is another attempt to control the American people’s money.»

Meta’s spokespeople didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Warren’s views.

The GENIUS Act is now back in negotiations, and some lawmakers remained hopeful it could reappear on the Senate floor as early as next week. There’s also a House of Representatives version similarly winding its way through the process in that chamber of Congress.

Binance and the Treasury

Warren, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee has been busy with her crypto-sector scrutiny, also joining in with colleagues on Friday to question Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi on their interactions with Binance as it reportedly sought to smooth out the U.S. legal demands the exchange still labors under after a 2023 settlement.

Five DemocratIc senators — also including Richard Blumenthal, Chris Van Hollen, Mazie Horono and Sheldon Whitehouse — sent a letter to the officials about the exchange’s discussions with the U.S. government as Binance increases business ties with World Liberty Financial, the crypto company tied to President Donald Trump and his family.

«As the administration loosens oversight on an industry where bad actors have violated money laundering and sanctions law, it is not surprising that Binance, which has admitted to prioritizing its own growth and profits over compliance with U.S. law, would seek to roll back the oversight required by its settlement,» they wrote in the letter, noting Binance’s constraints based on its past guilty pleas to a list of charges including money laundering and sanctions violations, for which the company is still under the observation of independent monitors. 

«Our concerns about Binance’s compliance obligations are even more pressing given recent reports that the company is using the Trump family’s stablecoin to partner with foreign investment companies,» the senators said.

Spokespeople for Binance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read More: Trump’s Crypto Play Fuels Senators’ Backlash and Bill to Ban President Memecoins

Nikhilesh De contributed reporting.

Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings (MARA) stock outperformed peers on Friday, even after its first quarter results missed Wall Street’s estimates, as the company’s focus on lowering costs is seen as positive by analysts.

Jefferies analysts said that with the bitcoin BTC price improving in the second quarter of this year and MARA focusing on more sustainable energy sources such as solar and flared gas-driven data centers, power costs should come down in the coming quarters and help margins.

«MARA is expanding infrastructure at its 114 MW wind farm and has fully energized its 25 MW micro flared gas data center, both of which should drive down power costs,» said analyst Jonathan Petersen in a note.

If the mining firm continues to buy up more of such power sources, it would help the company’s profitability, Petersen wrote. «Continued acquisition of power assets is expected to further reduce energy costs, expand margins, and better prepare the firm for the next halving.» Peterson reiterated his hold rating on the stock, while raising the price target to $16 from $13.

Bitcoin mining, once a very profitable business, has seen its profit margins crash drastically during the last bear market and even more so after the recent halving that cut the rewards by half. To make matters worse, rising power costs for mining have continued to plague the margins.

This squeeze has forced most miners to diversify their business into other sources of revenue, including hosting artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) data centers. MARA was among the few miners that didn’t jump into the AI sector right away, but rather focused on other avenues of diversification, such as transaction revenue services, mining pool, buying bitcoin in the open market and lowering power costs via green energy sources.

The last point about lower power cost seemed to have struck a chord with the market.

H.C. Wainwright analyst Kevin Dede said that this is what separates MARA from its mining peers: «Commentary last night made it clear the company remains focused on technology development in its core vertical of power conversion … with a peeled eye on driving energy costs to zero.»

«We rehash this here in distancing MARA’s strategy against mining competitors gently or forcefully migrating their mining businesses to address the rapidly evolving HPC opportunity,» he said.

Dede, who has a buy rating and price target of $28, also seemed to echo the sentiment that MARA will be able to lower costs by focusing on these types of power sources.

«Our opinion on that aside for now, we agree with MARA’s overarching objective to create opportunities by exploiting unused power or improving the efficiency of used power,» he said.

MARA’s shares rose as much as 9% on Friday, while the CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) has fallen about 0.3%.

Read more: MARA Holdings Cut to Sell at Compass Point Ahead of Earnings, Citing Cash Burn