Bitcoin surges to all-time high above $84K on Trump win
Bitcoin soared on Monday to fresh all-time highs on Donald Trump’s White House win after he staked his claim as a pro-crypto presidential candidate during his campaign.
The pricey cryptocurrency jumped 5.5% on Monday to $84,788.81. It had spiked about 9% on Wednesday after early morning election results showed Trump winning both the electoral college and popular vote.
Rival cryptocurrency Ether had gained 30% over the past week. It rose as high as $3,250.56 on Monday before dropping back down to $3,236.84.
Cardano, the decentralized token tied to a public blockchain platform of the same name, inched up 1.8%. It had surged more than 80% since the election results were called.
Popular memecoin Dogecoin soared 11.2% on Monday. It rose more than 90% since Election Day.
Coinbase jumped 16.7% on Monday after a 63% rally over the week. MicroStrategy jumped 19.4% on Monday and reached a new all-time high of $323.
Solo Ceesay, co-founder of digital marketplace Calaxy and former Citi investment banker, said Trump’s win would likely bring “favorable, more practical regulation” to the crypto industry.
“I expect us to see an explosion of on-chain activity and startups, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi), which could impact the growth of the centralized giants that currently exist,” Ceesay said in a note.
A Trump administration will likely institute a clearer and more logical framework around asset classification and taxation for digital assets, according to Eric Waisanen, co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Astrovault.
As president, Trump may try to reshape regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission or create a completely new agency to classify assets, Waisanen said.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the expectation is that taxation will be lower and far better nuanced with a better understanding of asset carrying and liquidity,” he said.
In July, Trump headlined the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tenn. and vowed to make the United States “the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world” if he was re-elected to the White House.
Trump laid out his plan for the industry, which includes firing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, collecting a “stockpile” of US crypto and creating a Bitcoin advisory council.
Trump has also previously insisted that all Bitcoin should be mined in the US.
“For three and a half years, the current administration has waged a war on crypto and Bitcoin like nobody’s ever seen before,” Trump said during the Bitcoin Conference.
In a research note last week as reported by CNBC, Citi strategists said crypto was one of the “few Trump trades that has yet to retrace.”
“Part of the reason is due to the anticipated cryptofriendly nature of Trump’s administration, which investors hope will translate into regulatory clarity in the U.S.,” the strategists, led by David Glass, said.
They said spot crypto ETFs saw some of their largest inflows since the election.
“Specifically, net inflows for BTC and ETH ETFs in the two days post-election were $2.01bn and $132mn, respectively,” they said. “We continue to see ETF flows as the main driver of Bitcoin returns.”
