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Bitcoin reached $100,000 for the first time on Wednesday.
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The cryptocurrency has risen by more than $30,000 since Donald Trump’s re-election.
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On Wednesday, Trump chose Paul Atkins, widely seen as pro-crypto, to lead the SEC
Bitcoin hit $100,000 for the first time ever on Wednesday night, hitting the coveted six-figure mark, as investors fueled a red-hot rally since Donald Trump’s election victory earlier this month.
The coin traded at $100,400 around 9:30 PM ET and continued to rise in the minutes after the $100,000 mark.
The token had approached the milestone last month before falling again as investors took profits and struggled to break the key psychological resistance level.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency has risen steadily since Trump won the election, from just under $70,000 on Election Day to $100,000 in just over two weeks – and analysts have predicted it could rise even further.
Standard Chartered said the crypto could increase to $125,000 by the end of the year in a memo earlier this fall. Piper Sandler’s chief market technician Craig Johnson said he saw bitcoin heading toward $130,000 in an interview with CNBC last month.
Meanwhile, MicroStrategy Chairman and Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor said his long-term forecast is for the token to reach $13 million by 2045.
The price of bitcoin has risen 133% this year.
The latest Trump-related development to push bitcoin higher was Trump’s nomination of Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is widely seen as pro-crypto and is co-chair of the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s Token Alliance, an industry-led initiative to represent the sector. If confirmed, he would replace Gary Gensler, who has taken a more aggressive approach to regulating crypto.
The market has also welcomed developments such as reports that the newly elected president could appoint a “crypto czar” to the White House. Bloomberg reported that Trump could create a new position to steer the market.
Meanwhile, Senator Cynthia Lummis reignited market excitement over one of Trump’s more specific campaign promises: the creation of a national bitcoin reserve. The Wyoming senator said the Federal Reserve should sell some of its gold reserves from the 1970s to buy bitcoin, thus avoiding the need to print new money.
Crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz recently said that Trump represented a “paradigm shift” in industry regulation. Although he predicted the coin would undergo a correction and retreat after reaching $100,000, he said the coin would eventually continue to rise.
“The entire cabinet almost owns bitcoin and is in favor of digital assets,” Novogratz said of the new government. “The people around that table are very pro in this area. They are pro-innovation, they are pro-digital assets, they are pro-bitcoin,” he added.
Saylor, who turned his software company into a massive bitcoin holding company, said Republicans taking control of the White House and Congress in January would be a boost to the crypto industry.
“The red wave turned a headwind into a tailwind. Instead of a 20% headwind, it becomes a 20% tailwind. I would be more optimistic based on the red wave,” Saylor told CNBC in a recent interview.
Read the original article on Business Insider
