Bitcoin broke above $88,000 on Thursday for the first time in two weeks, rallying 4.2% to $88,340 as the Dow’s 875-point surge to a record close injected risk-on momentum into a crypto market that had been stuck in a narrow $82,000-$86,000 range since late May. Ethereum followed suit, gaining 3.8% to $3,420, while the broader CoinDesk Market Index added 3.5%.

The move was driven by a sharp decline in the correlation between crypto and the Nasdaq, which is usually a drag on digital assets. On Thursday, the Nasdaq managed just a 0.3% gain as semiconductor weakness weighed, but crypto decoupled and rallied on its own — a signal that digital assets are finding their own bid independent of tech sector sentiment.

“The decoupling from tech is the story today,” said Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter. “Crypto has been trading as a high-beta proxy for growth stocks for months. Today, Bitcoin broke that correlation and rallied on the broader macro tailwind of a record Dow close. That’s a constructive signal.”

Spot BTC ETF flows provided the fuel. Net inflows hit $287 million on Thursday, the strongest single-day reading in two weeks, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $152 million. Fidelity’s FBTC added $78 million, and the Bitwise BITB fund saw $32 million in net inflows. The flow data suggests institutional buyers were using the Dow’s record momentum to add BTC exposure.

On-chain metrics reinforced the bullish case. Exchange balances dropped by 12,000 BTC on the day, per Glassnode, the largest single-day outflow since late May. Funding rates on perpetual swaps edged positive but remained well below euphoria levels at 0.004%, suggesting the rally has room to run without risking a liquidation cascade.

Altcoins posted broad gains. Solana rose 5.2% to $162, Chainlink added 6.8%, and Cardano gained 4.1%. The DeFi sector also caught a bid — Uniswap’s UNI token jumped 5.5% and Aave’s AAVE added 4.8%. Total crypto market cap expanded by roughly $62 billion on the session.

The immediate resistance sits at $89,500, a level that has rejected BTC twice in May. A clean break above that opens a path to $92,000 — the April high. Support at $84,500, the 50-day moving average, provides a floor that held firm during the Thursday move. With ETF flows turning positive and macro risk-on sentiment fueled by the Dow’s record, the path of least resistance for crypto is higher into the weekend.