Bitcoin surged to a record high above $106,000 on Monday after President-elect Donald Trump suggested he plans to create a US bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its strategic oil reserve, stoking the enthusiasm of crypto bulls.
The flagship cryptocurrency hit a high of $106,533 in the morning trading hours on Monday. Ethereum, another leading cryptocurrency, also rose 1.5 per cent to $3,965.
“We’re in blue sky territory here,” Reuters reported, citing Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG.
“The next figure the market will be looking for is $110,000. The pullback that a lot of people were waiting for just didn’t happen, because now we’ve got this news,” Sycamore said.
Investor sentiment also got a lift from the inclusion of MicroStrategy into the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index that will likely lead to more inflows for the software firm turned bitcoin buyer.
Bitcoin and crypto have been catapulted into the spotlight as investors wager the incoming Trump administration will usher in a friendlier regulatory environment, boosting sentiment around the alternate currency. BTC is up 192 per cent for the year.
“We’re gonna do something great with crypto because we don’t want China or anybody else – not just China but others are embracing it – and we want to be the head,” Trump told CNBC late last week.
When asked if he plans to build a crypto reserve similar to oil reserves, Trump said: “Yeah, I think so”.
Governments around the world held 2.2 per cent of bitcoin’s total supply as of July, according to data provider CoinGecko, with the US possessing nearly 200,000 bitcoins valued at more than $20 billion at current levels.
China, the UK, Bhutan and El Salvador are the other countries with significant amounts of bitcoins, data site BitcoinTreasuries showed.
Other countries have also been considering cryptocurrency strategic reserves.
BTC has surged more than 50 per cent since the November 5 election that saw Trump elected along with many other pro-crypto candidates.
The total value of the cryptocurrency market has almost doubled over the year so far to hit a record over $3.8 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
Trump – who once labelled crypto a scam – embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet”.
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