Bitcoin rocketed Monday to a record height above $106,000 on speculation that President-elect Donald Trump planned to create a US bitcoin strategic reserve comprising the entire oil reserve system. “
Bitcoin, the biggest and most popular digital currency in the world, reached a level of $106,533 during that time and is last worth up at $104,493 by 3.1%. More minor cryptos such as ether were rising by 1.2% to $3,952.
“We’re in blue sky territory here,” said Tony Sycamore of IG, an analyst. “The next figure that the market will be looking for is $110,000. The pullback that many people were waiting for just didn’t happen, now with this news.”
Investor sentiment also lifted with the decision to include MicroStrategy in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index, which is expected to pull in additional inflows for the software firm turned bitcoin buyer.
Bitcoin and crypto have been thrust into the limelight as investors bet that the upcoming Trump administration will bring a friendlier regulatory environment, raising hope about the alternate currency. Bitcoin has risen 192 percent for the year.
“We’re gonna do great things with crypto because we don’t want China or anyone else- not just China but others are embracing it- and we want to be on the top head,” a late Trump told CNBC last week.
When asked whether he intends to create a crypto reserve similar to the oil reserves, Trump replied: “Yeah, I think so.” Governments held 2.2 percent of bitcoin’s total supply by July, according to data provider CoinGecko, with the United States owning close to 200,000 bitcoins with an estimated value of over $20 billion, going by current valuation.
China, the UK, Bhutan, and El Salvador jointly form nations with a significant proportion of bitcoins, data site BitcoinTreasuries showed.
Other countries are also busy thinking over handling strategic reserves of cryptocurrencies.
“We ensure that everybody, including Russia, is tortured by this reserve currency,” said President Vladimir Putin earlier in the month. “For example, bitcoin, who can prohibit it? No one,” Puted said.
Cryptocurrency boost
Bitcoin has reared more than 50 pc since the election on Novembe 5, which saw Trump elected along with many other pro-crypto candidates. According to CoinGecko, the total value of the cryptocurrency market has almost doubled so far within the year to reach valuation over a staggering $3.8 trillion-the highest ever recorded.
The former agent turned politician – who once dismissed crypto as a sham – embraced digital assets in the campaign, promising to make America the “capital of planet Earth” for all crypto organisms.
This month, he named a White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies-ex-PayPal executive David Sacks, a close friend of Trump adviser and megadonor Elon Musk.
Also, Trump would appoint pro-crypto Washington attorney Paul Atkins as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Friday, exchange operator Nasdaq said it was adding MicroStrategy to the Nasdaq-100 Index, effective before market opens on Dec. 23. MicroStrategy, the biggest corporate holder of the crypto, has seen its shares rocket more than six-fold this year, lifting its market value to almost $94 billion. Now, it is the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency.
