New Highs, New Holders: Bitcoin Breaks $125K as Q4 Momentum Builds

Bitcoin Insights For Professionals

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Onramp MENA
October 06, 2025

New Highs, New Holders: Bitcoin Breaks $125K as Q4 Momentum Builds

Bitcoin has entered Q4 with force. After a choppy September defined by macro repositioning and ETF outflows, Bitcoin surged to a new all-time high in the early hours of Sunday October 5th, reaching above $125,500, before consolidating around the $123,000 range.

The breakout came on the back of Fed policy easing, strong sovereign and institutional demand, and a classic “Uptober” rally that turned September’s consolidation into a springboard. Unlike previous cycles, the push to new highs is not being led by speculative retail surges, but by structural, long-horizon buyers: sovereign wealth funds, pensions, corporations, and ETFs.

This rally sets a new tone for Q4: Bitcoin is no longer merely recovering from summer volatility it’s entering price discovery territory, underpinned by deep-pocketed allocators and macro tailwinds.

This Month’s Big Story: A Breakout Built on Structure

📈 Fed Rate Cut (Sep 17):

The Fed’s 25 bps cut, its first in years, set the macro stage. While markets initially treated the cut as “priced in,” it lowered real yields and reignited institutional risk appetite. Bitcoin briefly touched $116K before retracing.

📉 Late September Pullback

~$418M in ETF redemptions and $3.45B in liquidations knocked BTC below $110K. Crucially, this dip was absorbed by sovereigns, miners, and long-term institutions, a marked contrast with prior cycles when similar shocks led to deep drawdowns.

🚀 Uptober Ignition

As October began, ETF inflows flipped positive, macro sentiment turned risk-on, and sovereign demand persisted. Bitcoin surged through resistance levels, taking out the previous ATH of $124,500 and reaching $125,500, a new record high.

📊 Consolidation Above $123K

As of this writing, Bitcoin is trading above $123,000, consolidating near all-time highs with relatively low funding rates, suggesting the move is being driven by spot demand, not leverage.

Sovereign Wealth Funds Step In

Gulf-based sovereign entities are no longer just laying the groundwork, they’re actively allocating to Bitcoin. Abu Dhabi’s Zero Two (owned by ADQ) partnered with Marathon Digital in 2024 to build one of the world’s largest state-backed Bitcoin mining operations, marking an early sovereign foothold in Bitcoin infrastructure.

More recently, Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s $284 billion sovereign wealth fund, publicly disclosed a position of approximately $500 million in BlackRock’s IBIT ETF, making it one of the first major sovereign funds to gain exposure through a regulated U.S. product. This follows months of steadily increasing flows from Gulf-based investment vehicles, which ETF analysts have tracked since mid-year.

This sovereign activity mirrors the earlier allocations of Ivy League endowments, such as Harvard and Brown, which filed their first spot Bitcoin ETF positions in August 2025. Together, these moves signal a structural shift: Bitcoin is entering the portfolios of some of the world’s most sophisticated, long-term capital allocators.

Corporate & Institutional Moves

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) acquired an additional 4,000 BTC in September, bringing total holdings to ~640,000 BTC (~3% of supply).

Marathon Digital: Reserves passed 52,000 BTC, showing continued miner accumulation.

ETF Flows: After ~$1.2B in net outflows during September’s volatility, inflows resumed in late September and early October, led by pensions, family offices, and sovereign allocators. These inflows were instrumental in pushing BTC through its prior ATH.

Regulation & Nation-State Updates

United States: SEC approved generic ETF listing standards, broadening the pipeline for new products. Congress continued pressing the SEC to finalize guidance enabling Bitcoin in 401(k) plans, a development with potentially massive inflow implications.

Europe & UK: The UK extended its crypto marketing exemption through mid-2026. Nine European banks launched a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin for interbank settlements, highlighting institutional adoption on the fiat-rail side.

Middle East & Asia: The UAE ratified the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) for 2026 and Abu Dhabi’s RAK Properties began accepting Bitcoin for real estate. Pakistan deepened collaboration with El Salvador, established a domestic crypto regulator, and allocated 2,000 MW for mining, signaling interest in sovereign reserve strategies.

Market Snapshot

Key Bitcoin Metrics as of October 6, 2025:

🔶 Price: $123,391 USD
🔶 Market Cap: $2.45 Trillion USD
🔶 All-Time High: $125,700 USD (Oct 5, 2025)
🔶 Dominance: 58.6%
🔶 Satoshis per $1: ~810sats
📈 Onramp Terminal Metrics

Onramp Terminal

Closing Thought: A Different Kind of All-Time High

Bitcoin’s new all-time high doesn’t resemble the retail frenzies of 2017 or 2021. This breakout is characterized by ETF inflows, sovereign wealth demand, institutional spot buying, and subdued leverage.

Corrections will still come, but the market’s structure is fundamentally stronger. Volatility now serves as an entry point for allocators, not an exit trigger.

With Uptober in full swing and Bitcoin in price discovery, Q4 opens with new dynamics: the world’s most neutral reserve asset is being accumulated by some of the most sophisticated and deep-pocketed players on the planet.

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