Lhe bitcoin soared to a new historic record on Wednesday, boosted by the prospect of regulatory relaxation favorable to digital currencies in the event of Donald Trump's victory in the American presidential election.
After having exceeded its last absolute peak dating back to last March ($73,797.98), the first digital currency by capitalization rose to $75,005 around 03:08 GMT, an increase of some 8%.
It then caught its breath and was trading at $73,923 around 03:30 GMT. Ether – another major digital currency – was trading at $2,585, up 6%.
The price of bitcoin soared in unison with the dollar in markets riveted to the first results of the American presidential election, including states won by Donald Trump with a margin judged to augur the final outcome of the election.
“Markets are starting to bet on Trump's return. He won with a larger margin than expected in Florida, a very populous state, which reinforces expectations of Republican scores better than expected elsewhere in the country, underlined Yugo Tsuboi, strategist at Daiwa Securities, cited by the Bloomberg agency.
The former president committed during the campaign to making the United States “the world capital of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies”, by imposing an extremely relaxed regulatory framework.
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Influence de Trump ?
“The price of bitcoin closely follows Trump's position in the polls” because for investors, a Republican victory would lead to an increase in demand for the digital currency,” noted before the election Russ Mould, analyst at AJ Bell.
By posing as the champion of cryptocurrencies, the businessman takes the opposite view of the Biden government, considered to be in favor of strict regulation of the sector, even if Democrat Kamala Harris tried to give pledges to reassure holders of cryptocurrencies.
The “return to power (of Trump) would probably emphasize deregulation, tax incentives and economic policies favorable to alternative investments, such as bitcoin,” adds Nigel Green, at deVere.
The analyst also notes that the Republican's previous term “was marked by significant corporate tax cuts, which injected additional liquidity into the markets, thereby promoting investment in high-growth assets.” .
At the start of the year, the price of bitcoin was driven by anticipation of the “halving”, a technical event which reduces the supply of new bitcoins approximately every four years.
The digital asset also owes its rise to the debut of a new investment product on the American market, an index fund (ETF) indexed to bitcoin, which allows investors to benefit from fluctuations in the price of this cryptocurrency without owning any directly.
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