US election: Bitcoin hits $136,000. Why Trump is boosting crypto

By David Goldman, CNN

Bitcoin on Monday hit a new record above US$80,000 (NZ$136,355). The world’s largest cryptocurrency surged in the run-up to last week’s US presidential election, rose sharply immediately on election night after it became clear Donald Trump would win and has continued rising in the days since his victory.

Bitcoin is up 80 percent this year, dwarfing the S&P 500’s still-electric 25.7 percent gain this year. After briefly touching the US$80,000 milestone, bitcoin was trading just below it overnight Monday.

The crypto industry believes Trump’s victory is a bullish sign for bitcoin and other digital currencies. Although Trump was once a bitcoin sceptic, once saying it “was based on thin air,” he has fully embraced crypto in recent months – unlike the Biden administration, which has sought to rein in crypto.

A big reason Trump has changed his tune on crypto: He now has a financial stake in it. In September, Trump and his children started a new crypto business called World Liberty Financial.

“It’s very young and very growing,” Trump said of the cryptocurrency industry on 16 September while unveiling World Liberty Financial. “I do believe in it.”

The Biden administration, by contrast, has been far more sceptical of crypto. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said in June 2021, in one of his first speeches in his then-new job, that crypto was “ripe with fraud, scams and abuses.”

Gensler’s SEC sued crypto companies and worked to regulate the industry, which the chairman said he believed was at least partially made up of securities that were trading illegally. The SEC also partnered with other regulators, including the Department of Justice, going after crypto fraudsters – most notably Sam Bankman-Fried, the infamous CEO of FTX.

Gensler slow-walked – but eventually approved – a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, allowing people to add exposure to cryptocurrencies in their retirement accounts. In January 2024, Gensler’s X account was hacked, and his account falsely posted that the long-awaited bitcoin ETF was open for business, temporarily sending cryptocurrencies surging.

Trump said in August that cryptocurrencies could “define the future,” adding he wanted it “mined, minted and made in the USA.” The president-elect also proposed a strategic national bitcoin stockpile, akin to America’s strategic petroleum reserve, directly purchasing and investing in cryptocurrencies as a national security measure.

Elon Musk, one of Trump’s most visible and ardent supporters, is a notorious crypto bull. Musk’s favourite coin, Dogecoin, surged more than 20 percent on Monday and had been soaring all last week.

– CNN

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