Investing.com-- Bitcoin advanced higher on Wednesday, tracking an improvement in risk appetite after the U.S. and China said some trade dialogue will happen this week, while more buying action by Strategy also helped.

But despite Wednesday’s gains, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency remains range-bound after a rally through late-April petered out.

Bitcoin rose 3.5% to $97,211.0 by 09:48 ET (13:48 GMT), with $100,000 being eyed as the next major milestone for the coin. Bitcoin has floundered well below the level for the past three months.

Broader crypto prices also clocked small gains.

Bitcoin buoyed by U.S.-China trade talks

Gains in Bitcoin came tracking upside in broader risk-driven markets, after U.S. and China confirmed that top-level officials will meet for trade talks in Switzerland this week.

The announcement pushed up optimism that the world’s biggest economies will now engage in greater dialogue and help deescalate a bitter trade war between the two, although the timing of such a scenario remained unclear.

But hopes for a deescalation remained limited, especially as U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Tuesday that he did not plan to sign any trade deals soon. Both Beijing and Washington have also shown little interest in deescalation, after they slapped trade tariffs of over 100% on each other in April.

While the trade war and trade talks have little direct bearing on Bitcoin, crypto prices remain sensitive to shifts in sentiment, due to their speculative nature. Fears of a prolonged U.S.-China trade war and its economic fallout had spurred deep losses in Bitcoin earlier this year.

Strategy buys $180 mln Bitcoin

Michael Saylor’s Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR ) (formerly Microstrategy) said on Tuesday it had purchased about 1,895 Bitcoin for $180 million.

The purchase comes just days after the company– which is the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holder– said it will raise $21 billion through a stock offering to buy even more Bitcoin.

Still, Strategy’s latest purchase is its smallest since mid-March, signaling that the company may be cautious about price swings in the coin after it clocked a $5.91 billion unrealized loss on its Bitcoin pile in the first quarter.

Ethereum activates long-awaited ’Pectra’ upgrade

Meanwhile, Ethereum activated its major “Pectra” upgrade on Wednesday—the biggest update since the 2022 Merge. The hard fork aims to improve staking efficiency, wallet features, and overall performance, as the network faces growing competition and internal debate.

Triggered at 10:05 UTC and finalized within minutes, the upgrade raises the staking limit from 32 to 2,048 ETH. This allows large stakers to consolidate operations under a single node, reducing complexity and improving scalability.

Crypto price today: altcoins upbeat, but struggle to make progress

Broader crypto prices advanced tracking Bitcoin on Wednesday, although most cryptos struggled to break out of trading ranges established over the past week.

World no.2 crypto Ether rose 3.7% to $1,833.37, while XRP rose 1.9% to $2.13.

Solana added 3.1%, while Cardano rose 4%. Polygon added 1.5%.

Among meme tokens, Dogecoin rose more than 4%, while $TRUMP jumped around 3%.

Ambar Warrick contributed to this report.