Bitcoin BTC$71,085.37 traded lower Sunday as geopolitical risks resurfaced after U.S. Vice President JD Vance said peace talks involving Iran held in Pakistan had failed.

But beyond the macro noise, crypto-specific drivers continued to point toward a potential move toward $88,000 and higher, though outcomes remain dependent on how broader risk conditions evolve.

Bullish flows

Starting with market flows, sentiment has remained constructive. Strategy, the world’s largest publicly listed bitcoin holder, said it purchased $330 million worth of bitcoin last week, lifting its total holdings to 766,970 BTC. Some estimates suggest Strategy’s STRC-related activity has added roughly 8,000 bitcoin so far this week.

If that wasn’t enough, U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs—widely seen as a proxy for institutional demand—recorded net inflows of $787 million this week, according to data from SoSoValue. That marks the strongest weekly inflow since early March. Since then, these funds have attracted nearly $2 billion in cumulative investor capital.

“These are not yet massive flows in absolute terms, but the direction and persistence matter: with MicroStrategy buying and ETFs absorbing supply, downside risk is structurally capped as long as these flows and the technical picture hold,” said Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, in a note to clients on Sunday.

Thielen’s base case is now a rally toward $88,000, driven not only by flows but also by oversold signals from technical indicators such as stochastic oscillators, along with improving risk appetite across related markets, including mining equities and broader equities.

Publicly listed miners such as TeraWulf (WULF), Bitdeer Technologies (BITDEER), and IREN Limited have climbed between 10% and 30% this month. Broader U.S. equities have also rebounded, with the S&P 500 rising 4%, while AI-heavyweights such as Nvidia gained around 6%.

“The recent performance of bitcoin miners, particularly those pivoting toward AI hosting, signals that the market is rotating back into the AI capex and growth theme, with Iran-related risk increasingly looking like a sideshow,” Thielen said.

“Taken together, this shifts our base case firmly to the upside, with $88,000 as our primary near-term target. The confluence is rare: technicals are constructive, flows are positive and broadening, and the market is demonstrating a clear willingness to look through geopolitical noise," he noted,

Other widely tracked indicators of demand are also flashing supportive signals. For instance, the Coinbase Premium Index – which measures the price gap between bitcoin on Nasdaq-listed Coinbase and offshore exchange Binance – has climbed to 0.0586%, its highest level since October, according to data from Coinglass.

The move suggests relatively stronger buying pressure from U.S. investors compared with offshore markets, a dynamic often associated with bullish phases in crypto markets.

Clarity act

Matt Mena, senior crypto research strategist at 21Shares, said the potential passage of the Clarity Act later this quarter provides a “well-defined structural path” for further upside in crypto markets. The legislation, which aims to establish clearer jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and the CFTC and to define when a digital asset is a security or a commodity, is widely viewed as a key regulatory milestone that could reduce long-standing uncertainty for bitcoin and the broader crypto sector.

Polymarket traders are currently pricing in a 65% probability that the Clarity Act will be signed into law this year. While the bill passed the House in July 2025, it is currently stalled in the Senate.

“With the potential passage of the Clarity Act later this quarter, the structural path for a significant expansion is well-defined. Reclaiming $73,000 clears the runway for a $75,000 test, which would likely provide the firepower for a rapid move through $80,000 toward the $90,000 corridor. Combined with a neutral inflation backdrop, a $100,000 milestone by the end of Q2 remains a possible outcome,” he said in an email.

Inflation and on-chain dynamics

On the macro front, recent inflation data came in broadly mixed but leaned softer on underlying pressures. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.9% month-on-month, lifting the annual rate to 3.3%, largely driven by a 10% jump in energy prices.

However, core CPI – which strips out food and energy – rose just 0.2% on the month and 2.6% year-on-year, both 0.1 percentage points below expectations. The print suggests that underlying price pressures remain contained even as headline inflation is distorted by volatile energy costs.

For markets, that distinction matters. If inflation continues to moderate beneath the surface, the Federal Reserve may be able to look through temporary energy-driven spikes and maintain a more flexible policy stance later this year. A steady or more accommodative rate path typically supports liquidity conditions, which tends to benefit risk assets such as equities and cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.

Lastly, Vikram Subburaj, CEO of India-based FIU-registered Giottus exchange, pointed to supply dynamics which suggests prices are unlikely to face any resistance between $70,000 and $80,000.

“Supply distribution data indicates that only about 1 percent of circulating Bitcoin lies between $72,000 and $80,000. This suggests that a sustained break above current resistance could lead to relatively faster price discovery due to thinner overhead supply,” he said in an email.

Taken together, these factors suggest that while geopolitical risks continue to dominate headlines, underlying crypto market structure remains supportive of potential upside in bitcoin—assuming broader risk conditions do not materially deteriorate.