Bitcoin skyrockets past $100,000
The price of Bitcoin has smashed the long-awaited $100,000 threshold as part of a rally fueled by investor expectations of crypto-friendly policies from US President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
The flagship cryptocurrency rose as high as $103,844 per coin late on Wednesday. It was trading at $103,173 on Thursday, up by more than 7% as of 14:54 GMT.
Bitcoin is now up more than 140% in 2024, with a significant part of these gains coming with the post-election rally.
At over $2 trillion, Bitcoin is now the seventh-largest financial asset by market capitalization, surpassing energy giant Saudi Aramco and moving closer to tech giants Amazon and Google. Overall, the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies stood at around $3.8 trillion on Thursday, up by more than 131% in annual terms.
The latest milestone comes as Trump announced plans to nominate Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates the cryptocurrency sector. A crypto advocate and former SEC commissioner, Atkins will replace Gary Gensler, who has long led a crackdown on the industry. During his campaign, Trump has pledged to unseat Gensler.
Once a crypto skeptic himself, Trump has changed his stance, claiming he would make the US the “crypto capital of the planet,” and insisting that all Bitcoin should be mined in the country. He even used Bitcoin to buy cheeseburgers and beer for his supporters at a New York City bar.
Last month, it was reported that Trump’s social media company was holding talks to buy crypto trading firm Bakkt.
Many analysts have long predicted that Bitcoin could surge past the historic milestone. However, some of them have had mixed reactions to the latest rally.
“Individual investors must be excited to see the BTC price top $100,000 following the news of Paul Atkins being nominated as SEC chair,” Shoki Omori, chief Japan desk strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, told Reuters.
“Of course, this doesn’t mean BTC will rally forever, as there will be moves to take profits,” he said.
According to Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at BTSE in Hong Kong, Bitcoin could reach “even greater heights” as more institutions begin to perceive it as a viable store of value, and allocate funds to Bitcoin ETFs.
