- Bitcoin is up more than 25% since Trump’s victory.
- Congress and regulators are considered crypto-friendly.
- Miners are soaring on speculation that the United States is buying crypto stocks.
SINGAPORE: Bitcoin was hovering at the $90,000 mark on Tuesday, riding a wave of euphoria since the election of Donald Trump as US president on hopes that his administration will be crypto-friendly.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency has become one of the biggest stocks of the week since the election and reached $89,637 in Asia, a gain of more than 25% since November 5.
It’s booming with Elon Musk’s automaker Tesla, which is up nearly 40% since the vote results came in, with investors believing Trump’s friends and interests will do well as long as he will be in power.
“Obviously, this is clearly a Trump trade, as he is very supportive of the industry, and this can only mean increased demand for both crypto stocks and the currencies 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 results were announced meant there were clear skies above.”
Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and amass a national stockpile of bitcoin.
It’s unclear exactly how or when this might happen, but the possibility has led to a speculative surge in cryptocurrency mining and trading.
“I think it increases the chances of other nation states buying bitcoin in an effort to take over the U.S.,” said Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency asset manager Astronaut Capital.
“Plus, I think this would be a crazy catalyst for US-listed Bitcoin miners… given the possibility of such entities being nationalized.”
Crypto miner Riot Platforms surged nearly 17% on Wall Street overnight and rose further after hours. Fellow miners MARA Holdings and CleanSpark jumped nearly 30%.
Software company and Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy announced that it spent approximately $2 billion buying Bitcoin between October 31 and November 10. Shares rose 26% and continued to gain after hours.
Euphoria has spread across the crypto landscape with the surge of smaller tokens such as ether (ETH) and even dogecoin (DOGE), a unique joke currency.
Crypto investors are seeing an end to increased scrutiny from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, whom Trump announced he would replace. Trump also unveiled a new crypto company, World Liberty Financial, in September.
“What we are seeing is not just a price milestone; it is a signal that the market is interested in the idea of Bitcoin as a more stable, even politically favored, asset,” said Justin D ‘Anethan, Head of Asia-Pacific. business development at digital assets market maker Keyrock.