The price of the world’s largest cryptocurrency rose by 6.1 percent on Thursday to reach $103,800, which is even 50 percent more than the price it had the day after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.
Bitcoin has crossed the $100,000 mark for the first time in history, reports the Financial Times.
The reason for this should be sought mainly in the fact that investors are counting on greater political and regulatory support from the newly elected US president, Donald Trump, but also in the large amount of institutional money that has been poured into cryptocurrencies.
The Republican’s shift in stance on cryptocurrencies, which he previously criticized as “scams,” came after major cryptocurrency investors funded his campaign.
On Wednesday, Trump nominated cryptocurrency market advocate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). But that’s not all.
Trump, who has promised to make the US “the world’s Bitcoin superpower”, has already appointed several cryptocurrency enthusiasts to key roles in the next US government.
This choice includes Howard Lutnik to lead the Commerce Department and of course Elon Musk to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Bitcoin reaching $100,000 is an incredible milestone for our movement. We never doubted. I never wavered. And we will never stop building,” Chris Marszalek, CEO of Exchange Crypto.com, wrote on X.
The cryptocurrency’s rise above $100,000 comes two years after the darkest days for cryptocurrencies. Namely, at the end of 2022, the collapse of FTX caused a market crisis and reduced the price of Bitcoin to 16 thousand dollars.
We recall that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, was fined $4.3 billion for failing to prevent money laundering, while FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March for defrauding customers. .
It was the SEC, soon to be taken over by the aforementioned crypto-enthusiast Paul Atkins, that launched a series of lawsuits against many of the biggest names in cryptocurrency, including the exchange Coinbase, Kraken and Crypto.com, the service provider Ripple payments and blockchain software company Consensys.
The current vice chairman, Gary Gensler, 18 percent of the SEC’s advisories, complaints and recommendations related to cryptocurrencies, despite the fact that cryptocurrency markets account for less than 1 percent of the U.S. capital market.
Cryptocurrency executives and traders are now predicting a “golden age”.
“The interest in cryptocurrencies is almost unstoppable,” said Jeff Kendrick, global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, a British investment bank.
In addition to Trump, Bitcoin’s rise has also been fueled by an influx of money from the biggest cryptocurrency funds, including BlackRock and Fidelity, which have made billions since receiving regulatory approval in January.
Inflows have accelerated since Trump’s landslide victory, with $4.4 billion pouring into cryptocurrencies since the beginning of November. BlackRock’s Bitcoin fund now has $45 billion in assets.
“This time the rise of Bitcoin is of a different nature. We have a pro-tech president, a red (Republican) Senate, a red House,” said Cameron Winklevoss, who is also known to have sued Mark Zuckerberg several times, claiming he and his twin brother stole the idea for Facebook.
