After a two-week flirtation with the six-figure mark, bitcoin has surged past $100,000 for the primary time on the pondering that the incoming administration might be friendlier towards — and calm down laws on — cryptocurrencies.
The milestone got here late Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Paul Atkins to move the the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins runs Patomak Global Partners, a monetary providers advisory group that works with crypto business purchasers. Atkins can be an adviser to the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a crypto advocacy group.
The decide is a marked flip from outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who cracked down on digital property following a 2022 market rout that unveiled fraudulent practices and resulted in costly blowups, together with the sudden collapse of crypto trade FTX, adopted by crypto lenders Genesis and Celsius.
Coinciding with Trump’s choice of a crypto backer to guide the SEC, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday likened bitcoin to gold, telling the New York Times DealBook Summit that “folks use bitcoin as a speculative asset. It’s like gold, it is similar to gold, solely it is digital, it is digital. People usually are not utilizing it as a type of cost or a retailer of worth,” Powell mentioned. “It’s extremely unstable. It’s not a competitor for the greenback, it is actually a competitor for gold.”
Formerly a skeptic, Trump is now a convert. He and his sons have started their very own crypto enterprise, and different members of the incoming administration have beforehand disclosed investments in and backing for cryptocurrencies. That consists of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Trump over the summer time spoke at a bitcoin convention in Nashville, the place he pledged to make America “the crypto capital of the planet” as soon as again within the White House.
Trump on Thursday took credit score for bitcoin’s rise, posting on his Truth Social platform: “CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! YOU’RE WELCOME!!! Together, we’ll Make America Great Again!”
The worth of bitcoin has leapt 42% because the day earlier than the presidential election on November 5, when it was operating about $70,000 a coin. It jumped as excessive as $103,800 after breaching the $100,000 stage.
