President-elect Donald Trump is wasting no time in taking a bow on bitcoin’s price rise — and the wealth it creates for owners of the digital asset.
In a post early Thursday on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote: “CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU ARE WELCOME!!! Together we will make America great again!”
The cryptocurrency reached the six-figure mark late Wednesday after hovering around $90,000 for several weeks. Bitcoin’s price rose by $20,000 after Trump’s clear election victory in November, from about $68,318 in just seven days.
Year to date, the stock is up more than 130%.
Cryptocurrency advocates aren’t pushing back on the idea that Trump deserves some credit for the latest price hike.
“His name is President Pump. Up only,” David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin magazine and the Bitcoin Conference, wrote on X.
The crypto community has also been encouraged by Trump’s latest cabinet pick. In appointing Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, Trump wrote Wednesday that Atkins “recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are critical to making America greater than ever before.”
Atkins leads Patomak Global Partners, a financial services advisory group that works with clients in the crypto industry. He also serves as an advisor to the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a crypto advocacy group.
Working with the chamber’s Token Alliance, Atkins has helped develop a set of best practices for regulating crypto.
Digital token fans have criticized the tenure of outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler for taking a punitive approach to the crypto world.
“It is impossible to express the magnitude of the shift we are likely to see with an SEC led by Paul Atkins,” wrote Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer of financial technology group Variant. “Crypto has literally never existed without the overhanging uncertainty or hostility of US regulators. This moment is a regulatory singularity before a new era for crypto.”
Atkins’ nomination rounds out a new administration that is all-in on crypto.
Trump’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, discussed the benefits of digital assets in an interview with Fox Business this year, according to Forbes.
“Crypto is about freedom, and the crypto economy is here to stay,” Bessent said. “Crypto brings in young people, people who haven’t participated in markets.”
Forbes also noted that Bessent has invested in blockchain startups and decentralized finance (DeFi) initiatives.
Other members of the new Trump administration, including newly elected Vice President J.D. Vance, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of Health and Human Services and Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, have all stated that they have invested in and support cryptocurrencies.
Trump made courting crypto a cornerstone of his last presidential campaign. This summer he was a keynote speaker at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Even as he acknowledged his lack of full understanding of how crypto technology works, Trump promised to make America “the crypto capital of the planet” if elected.
“We will have rules, but from now on the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not who hate your industry,” Trump said at the time.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
