Bitcoin has made a historic leap, crossing $89,000, hitting a new all-time high. This meteoric rise has pushed the total value of the cryptocurrency market to unprecedented levels, surpassing its peak during the pandemic.
This rise is due to several factors, most notably the positive expectations for the cryptocurrency market under the presidency of US President-elect Donald Trump, who promised to adopt policies that support cryptocurrencies.
The world's largest cryptocurrency has jumped about 32 percent since the U.S. election on Nov. 5, hitting an all-time high of $89,599 early Tuesday, according to data from Bloomberg.
Trump has pledged to put in place rules and regulations that will greatly support the cryptocurrency market, and his Republican Party is tightening its grip on Congress to push his economic agenda.
Trump embraced crypto assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the crypto capital of the planet and create a national strategic reserve of Bitcoin, as well as promote domestic mining of the currency.
Bitcoin is rising alongside Elon Musk's Tesla, which has surged about 40 percent since the vote results came in, as investors expect Trump's cronies and their companies to do well while he is in office.
“This (the bitcoin rally) is clearly because of Trump’s trading because he is a big supporter of the industry, and that can only mean increased demand for cryptocurrency stocks as well as the coins themselves,” Nick Tweedall, chief market analyst at ATFX Global in Sydney, told Reuters.
The fact that Bitcoin was trading near its all-time high when the election result came in meant it had plenty of room to run further, he added.
Shares of cryptocurrency mining company Riot Platforms jumped about 17 percent on Wall Street and continued to rise further in after-hours trading. Shares of mining companies MARA Holdings and CleanSpark jumped about 30 percent.
Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy said it spent about $2 billion buying bitcoin between Oct. 31 and Nov. 10. The company’s shares rose 26 percent and were still rising in after-hours trading on Wall Street.
The enthusiasm also extended across the cryptocurrency world, with smaller coins like Ether and even Dogecoin rising strongly by around 5.2 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
Cryptocurrency investors are seeing an end to heightened scrutiny under SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, whom Trump has said he will replace once he takes office in January. Trump also unveiled a new cryptocurrency, World Liberty Financial, in September.
“What we’re seeing is not just a historic milestone in prices, but a signal that the market is coming to accept the idea of bitcoin as a more stable and even politically preferable asset,” said Justin Dannithan, head of business development at crypto asset maker Keyrock, according to Reuters.
