Bitcoin continues to smash all-time high records, as the leading cryptocurrency broke $113,000 on Thursday, according to data from Binance. After flirting with a new high on Wednesday, topping $112,000 according to some exchanges, a surge on Thursday pushed it above previous thresholds, with prices nearing $114,000 as of publication.

The climb continues a torrid summer for the popular digital asset, which has spent most of the past few months above $100,000, a benchmark it first reached in December 2024 before dipping back to $75,000 in April.

The monthslong rally can be largely attributed to the election of President Donald Trump, who embraced crypto on the campaign trail and promised a series of crypto-friendly policies, including a government strategic reserve holding Bitcoin, which he signed as an executive order after taking office in January.

According to Andy Baehr—the managing director at CoinDesk Indices, which measures the performance of digital assets—demand from crypto ETFs and corporate treasuries is driving much of the recent price movement, with long-term holders taking profits. Other popular cryptocurrencies are also rallying, with Solana increasing nearly 6% over the past week and Ethereum nearly 10%, according to data from Binance.

Bitcoin boom

Originally conceptualized in a white paper by the pseudonymous figure Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, Bitcoin served as the first cryptocurrency, or a kind of decentralized currency that is not controlled by a single entity or government. And while thousands of cryptocurrencies have since emerged, Bitcoin remains the largest by far, with a market capitalization of $2.25 trillion, compared to Ethereum’s $340 billion.

While Bitcoin’s price has spent most of its existence on a roller coaster—dramatically increasing and falling again amid hacks, collapses, and scandals—it has steadily grown since late 2022, when the bankruptcy of the crypto exchange FTX sent the industry into a so-called “winter.” Bitcoin’s real explosion, however, came after Trump embraced the cryptocurrency on the campaign trail, with Bitcoin topping $100,000 for the first time soon after his election.

The thawing regulatory landscape and subsequent institutional adoption have helped spur the rally. The Securities and Exchange Commission first approved Bitcoin ETFs in early 2024, which allowed investors to put money into exchange-traded vehicles that held the cryptocurrency without directly holding it themselves. And in recent months, publicly traded companies have begun to hold Bitcoin in their treasuries—an approach evangelized by Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which is one of the largest owners of the cryptocurrency.

For an experimental project first conceptualized as an alternative financial system, Bitcoin is increasingly dominated by publicly traded companies and funds. But if its enigmatic architect, Satoshi, ever reemerges, he would become one of the richest people on earth. His stash is now estimated at around $100 billion.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The scam began with a message, then a friendly exchange. A stranger directed the victim to a cryptocurrency investment site that appeared professional — slick design, charts, even customer support. The first deposit showed a modest profit. So did the next. Encouraged, the victim sent more, even borrowing money to keep up. Then, without warning, the platform stopped responding. The account balance disappeared.

“That’s how they do it,” Jamie Lam, an investigative analyst with the U.S. Secret Service, told law enforcement officials in Bermuda last month. “They’ll send you a photo of a really good-looking guy or girl. But it’s probably some old guy in Russia.”

Secret Service investigators traced the fraud to the domain name behind the fake investment site. Using open-source tools, they found out when it was registered, by whom and how it had been paid for. A cryptocurrency payment pointed them to another wallet. A brief VPN failure exposed an IP address.

Lam is part of the agency’s Global Investigative Operations Center or GIOC, a team specializing in digital financial crimes. Their tools are software, subpoenas, and spreadsheets, not badges or guns.

“It’s not always that hard,” Lam said. “Sometimes you just need patience.”

Patience and digital tools have helped the GIOC seize nearly $400 million in digital assets over the last decade, a figure not previously reported, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations.

Much of that trove sits in a single cold-storage wallet that now ranks among the most valuable anywhere. After leading crackdowns on digital currencies such as Liberty Reserve and E-Gold in the 1990s, the agency best known for protecting U.S. presidents has become one of the world’s biggest crypto custodians.

At the center of the operation is Kali Smith, a lawyer who directs the Secret Service’s cryptocurrency strategy. 

Her team has conducted workshops in more than 60 countries to train local law enforcers and prosecutors in unmasking digital crimes. The agency targets jurisdictions where criminals exploit weak oversight or residency-for-sale programs, and provides the training for free.

“Sometimes after just a week-long training, they can be like, ‘Wow, we didn’t even realize that this is occurring in our country,’” she said.

Last month, the team flew to Bermuda, a British overseas territory that has marketed itself to digital-asset firms with one of the world’s most comprehensive crypto frameworks — and exposed itself to new threats in the process.

“Technologies and financial services are fantastic for economic growth, but they can also be exploited,” Bermuda’s governor, Andrew Murdoch, said in an interview. “Alongside the benefits, you need strong investigative powers to deal with abuse under the law.”

Inside a conference room on a hill overlooking Hamilton Harbor, Smith told her class that scam victims usually see opportunity. “They think they can use Bitcoin and be safe. But that isn’t the case,” she said.

One real-life case involved an Idaho teenager who thought he was flirting online and sent a nude photo to a stranger. The stranger then demanded $300 or the image would be sent to his relatives. He paid twice before going to police. 

GIOC analysts reconstructed the extortion with screenshots, receipts and blockchain data. Payments had been routed through another American teenager coerced into acting as a money mule, then funneled to an account that had processed about $4.1 million across nearly 6,000 transactions and was registered to a Nigerian passport, according to an analyst who asked not to be named because the investigation is ongoing.

British officers arrested the suspected extortionist when he landed in Guildford, England. He remains in custody awaiting extradition, the analyst said.

Fraud tied to digital currencies now drives a majority of U.S. internet-crime losses. Americans reported $9.3 billion in crypto-related scams in 2024, more than half of the $16.6 billion logged that year, FBI data show. Older victims bore the largest share, losing nearly $2.8 billion, much of it to bogus investment sites.

Some schemes spill into real-world violence. In New York, two investors were indicted for allegedly kidnapping and torturing a longtime friend inside a townhouse to force access to his digital wallet. In Connecticut, six men were charged with abducting the parents of a teenage hacker who had stolen $245 million in Bitcoin, beating them in a failed ransom attempt.

To claw back stolen funds, the Secret Service leans on industry partners. Coinbase and Tether have publicly acknowledged assisting in recent cases, providing trace analysis and wallet freezes. One of the largest recoveries involved $225 million in USDT, the dollar-pegged token known as Tether, linked to romance-investment scams.

“We’ve been following the money for 160 years,” said Patrick Freaney, head of the agency’s New York field office, which oversees Bermuda. “This training is part of that mission.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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