Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends crypto conference in Nashville
par Tom Westbrook
Bitcoin was close to the $90,000 threshold on Tuesday, supported by a wave of euphoria following the election to the presidency of the United States of Donald Trump, considered favorable to cryptocurrencies.
The world's largest cryptocurrency, particularly scrutinized since the week of the American election, reached $89,637 in Asia, a gain of more than 25% since November 5.
At the same time, the stock of Tesla, Elon Musk's car manufacturer, has increased by almost 40% since the election, with investors estimating that the interests of Donald Trump's supporters and relatives will emerge victorious from his election.
“Clearly, this is a consequence of the election of industry-backing Donald Trump, which can only strengthen demand for the sector and cryptocurrencies themselves,” said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at ATFX Global in Sydney.
“The fact that bitcoin was trading near its all-time highs when the election result came in means it has a clear outlook.”
Donald Trump seized on the subject during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “cryptocapital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.
Although the ins and outs of such a project are unknown, the shares of companies related to the mining and exchange of cryptocurrencies benefit from the speculation.
“I think it increases the chances that other nation states will buy bitcoin to try to get ahead of the United States,” said Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency asset manager Astronaut Capital.
“Additionally, I think this would be a crazy catalyst for publicly traded bitcoin miners in the United States, given the possibility of these entities being nationalized.”
Cryptocurrency miner Riot Platforms jumped nearly 17% on Wall Street overnight and rose further in after-hours trading. Fellow miners MARA Holdings and CleanSpark jumped almost 30%.
Software company and bitcoin investor MicroStrategy announced that it spent approximately $2 billion buying bitcoin between October 31 and November 10. The stock rose 26% and continued to advance after the session.
The euphoria has spread across the entire crypto landscape, with less significant cryptocurrencies like ether and even dogecoin surging.
Cryptocurrency investors anticipate an easing of increased regulation exerted by Gary Gensler, chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, whom Donald Trump has said he wants to replace. The president-elect also launched a new cryptocurrency project called World Liberty Financial in September.
“What we are seeing is not just the surpassing of a new price threshold; it is a signal that the market increasingly believes that bitcoin is a more stable asset, even politically favored,” Justin said D'Anethan, Head of Business Development for Asia Pacific at digital asset market maker Keyrock.
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook; French version by Bertrand De Meyer, edited by Kate Entringer)
