Illustration of the bitcoin cryptocurrency
Bitcoin hit a record high above $106,000 on Monday after US President-elect Donald Trump said he was considering creating a strategic bitcoin reserve similar to the country’s strategic oil reserve, supporting appetite for investors for cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest and best-known cryptocurrency, hit a high of $106,533 and was trading around $106,110 around 3:51 p.m. GMT on Monday, up about 3%, while ether, another known but less important cryptocurrency, was up 2% to $3,945.
“The next number the market will look to reach is the $110,000 mark. The pullback that many people were expecting didn’t happen, because now we have this news,” said Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG.
Investor sentiment was also boosted by MicroStrategy’s inclusion in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index, which will give it access to more capital as the company is now one of the largest holders of cryptocurrencies in the world.
Investors are betting that the new Trump administration will create a more favorable regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin having surged more than 50% since the November 5 election and 192% since the start of the year.
“We are going to do something big with cryptocurrency (…) and we want to be a step ahead,” Donald Trump declared on CNBC at the end of last week, citing in particular competition from China.
When asked if he planned to build up a cryptocurrency reserve similar to oil reserves, Donald Trump replied: “Yes, I think so.”
According to data provider CoinGecko, governments around the world held 2.2% of the total bitcoin supply in July, with the United States owning nearly 200,000 bitcoins worth more than $20 billion at the current level. .
“I think we still need to be cautious about a strategic reserve of bitcoins, and at least consider that it is not likely to happen anytime soon,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.
PRO-CRYPTO POLICY
The total value of the cryptocurrency market has almost doubled since the start of the year to reach a record figure of more than $3.8 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
Donald Trump, who has previously called cryptocurrencies a scam, changed his stance on digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “cryptocurrency capital of the world.”
The president-elect has also named David Sacks “czar of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies” at the White House to guide the administration in these areas and indicated that he would appoint Paul Atkins, pro-cryptocurrency lawyer, to head of the policeman of the American Stock Exchange (SEC).
(Reporting by Kevin Buckland and Ankur Banerjee, with Amanda Cooper and Medha Singh; French version Bertrand De Meyer, editing by Sophie Louet)
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