Bitcoin Hits High $100K on Optimism over Trump’s Crypto Policies

Following the announcement of President-elect Donald Trump’s administration nominees, who are seen to hold the key to enacting crypto-friendly regulations when he takes office in January, Bitcoin briefly reached $100,000 on Wednesday, setting a new milestone.

One of the most prominent candidates is Paul Atkins, whom Trump plans to choose to head the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which oversees bitcoin regulation.

Unlike Gary Gensler, who heads the commission under the Biden administration, Atkins, a crypto supporter and former SEC commissioner, is anticipated to regulate cryptocurrencies more loosely. On the day of the inauguration, Gensler, who vehemently opposed the industry’s growth in the US, is scheduled to step down.

Just hours after Atkins was named Trump’s nominee for SEC chair, the price of bitcoin hit $100,000.

The extraordinary rise that began when Trump was predicted to win the president on November 6 sparked a $6,000 one-day spike in bitcoin that sent it to a new high above $74,000, and the current milestone builds on that. After a week, it reached $90,000.

Bitcoin has risen 130% so far this year, with a large amount of its profits coming from the post-election boom. Its performance is much superior than that of the S&P 500, which has increased by 28% during the same time frame.

Once a crypto skeptic, Trump had referred to it as “not money,” saying it was “highly volatile and based on thin air.” In order to appeal to younger male voters, who are more likely than other demographic groups to hold cryptocurrency, he made a complete 180-degree pivot in the months preceding his re-election.

When Trump spoke at the biggest cryptocurrency convention in Nashville in July, he vowed to create a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile” and to keep bitcoin that the government confiscates from criminals instead of selling it at auction, as is currently the case.

“I want cryptocurrency to be mined, minted, and made in the USA if it is going to shape the future,” Trump declared.

Then, in September, Trump started World Liberty Financial, his own cryptocurrency company.

In that same month, he also used bitcoin to buy hamburgers at a bar in Manhattan that is popular with cryptocurrency fans. “History in the making,” he said.

The Financial Times also claims that negotiations are underway for Trump’s media firm, which owns Truth Social, to acquire the cryptocurrency trading forum Bakkt.

In a post on X Wednesday night, prominent cryptocurrency proponent Anthony Pompliano, who is the founder and CEO of the financial firm Professional Capital Management, stated, “If you like bitcoin at $100,000, you’re going to love it at $1 million.”

For Trump, courting cryptocurrency paid off

During this election cycle, the cryptocurrency industry threw its weight behind Trump and the Republican Party, with major super PACs contributing over $131 million to elect pro-crypto candidates in congressional elections.

The move helped the Trump campaign generate millions of dollars since it started taking cryptocurrency donations in May.

After four years under the Biden administration, the community that helped solidify his triumph is now counting on a wave of pro-crypto policies.

Trump looks willing to comply. Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and a well-known supporter of Tether, the corporation that owns one of the largest cryptocurrency assets in the world, is also one of his nominees in addition to Atkins.

Furthermore, according to Bloomberg, he is thinking of establishing the first White House position devoted only to crypto policy.

However, many of today’s financial regulators are not fans of crypto. As an example, Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, described bitcoin as “a speculative asset.”

He believes that bitcoin shares many characteristics with gold, which isn’t widely used as a primary method of payment by US customers. It is not a rival for the dollar. At a presentation Wednesday, he declared, “It’s really a competitor for gold.”

Powell claimed that he is “not allowed” to own any cryptocurrency.

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