Trump-fueled crypto rally rages on as bitcoin hits new high.
Credit: koto_feja | E+
Late Wednesday, bitcoin hit $100,000—a major milestone for the cryptocurrency, which has been experiencing a massive upswing since Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
Trump is a shiny new crypto supporter, launching his own cryptocurrency on the campaign trail and hoping to woo crypto enthusiast voters by promising to slacken the Biden administration’s heightened scrutiny of cryptocurrency.
According to CNN, bitcoin’s latest record high came shortly after Trump announced his intentions to nominate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) once Gary Gensler—a noted crypto critic—resigns on Inauguration Day.
Atkins previously served as an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008 and currently is co-chair of Token Alliance, which bills itself as a group of more than 400 “industry thought leaders” and technologists and lobbies for friendlier crypto regulations. Viewed as a crypto advocate, Atkins is expected to support Trump’s plan to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet.”
“If crypto is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted, and made in the USA,” Trump said on the campaign trail, CNN noted. And on Wednesday, he posted on Truth Social that “Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations” who “also recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”
Although Atkins would still need to be confirmed, bitcoin’s price rocketed to $100,000 “just hours” after Trump revealed his pick, CNN reported.
Bitcoin collectively worth $2 trillion
For bitcoin investors, this jump has already been huge, and the rally does not seem to be ending any time soon.
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The New York Times noted that “Bitcoin now stands as arguably the most successful investment product of the last 20 years” after previously becoming “mocked” as a “sideshow.” Collectively, all the bitcoins in circulation are worth about $2 trillion, the Times reported, which is more than MasterCard, Walmart, and JPMorgan Chase combined.
The ongoing rally has begun to make some of the earliest purchases using crypto appear a little ill-advised—like when Laszlo Hanyecz spent 10,000 bitcoins on two pizzas in 2010, then worth $40 but now worth $1 billion, the Times noted.
But for those who have held tight to bitcoins while enduring crypto winters, bitcoin’s rise shows the wisdom of stockpiling, and as bitcoin seems likely to continue rallying, Trump seemingly wants the US to become just as savvy.
The president-elect has vowed to create a national stockpile of bitcoins, which he has claimed could be used to wipe out the US national debt by discontinuing the government’s typical practice of auctioning off cryptocurrency seized during criminal investigations, CNN reported. It’s an ambitious goal, as the US national debt crossed the $34 trillion mark early this year, Forbes reported. Trump’s plan could meet resistance, however, as crypto experts and political analysts are already raising questions about the seeming conflicts of interest between how Trump governs crypto and his potentially large stake in the industry if his cryptocurrency takes off.
Atkins has said that the US being too tough on cryptocurrency drove investors to other markets where regulations on digital assets are clearer, like Asia or Europe, The Wall Street Journal reported. If his plans to shift US regulations to be “more accommodating” to crypto come to fruition, those investments could come back to the US, Atkins suggested. And the friendlier the regulatory environment gets, the more stable and legitimized crypto becomes and the more value could be pumped into the US, the thinking goes.
How far Trump will take his plan to be America’s first “pro-crypto president” remains unclear, though. He has previously expressed concerns over crypto facilitating unlawful behavior, like drug trade or money laundering.
But in the build-up to his next term, the outlook is good for crypto investors as bitcoin’s price soars. Late Wednesday, the CEO of Professional Capital Management and longtime crypto advocate Anthony Pompliano—seemingly teeming with optimism—forecast on X (formerly Twitter) that bitcoin’s price will only keep rising.
“If you like bitcoin at $100,000, you’re going to love it at $1 million,” Pompliano posted, prompting a top commenter to joke, “how long have you been sitting on this tweet…”
