Bitcoin powers above US$106,000 for first time on strategic reserve hopes
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Bitcoin surged on news reports over the weekend that Trump would go ahead with a Bitcoin strategic reserve fund.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Tokyo - Bitcoin surged to a record high above US$106,000 on Dec 16, after US President-elect Donald Trump suggested he plans to create a US Bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its strategic oil reserve.
Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best known cryptocurrency, hit a high of US$106,533 and last traded up 3.2 per cent to US$104,462. Smaller crypto Ether rose 1.5 per cent to US$3,965.
“We’re in blue sky territory here,” said Mr Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG. “The next figure the market will be looking for is US$110,000. The pullback that a lot of people were waiting for just didn’t happen, because now we’ve got this news.”
“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.”
Other countries have also been considering cryptocurrency strategic reserves.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in December questioned the need to hold state reserves in foreign currencies, saying that domestic investment of such reserves was more attractive.
Mr Putin said the current US administration was undermining the role of the US dollar as the reserve currency in the global economy by using it for political purposes, forcing many countries to turn to alternative assets, including cryptocurrencies.
“For example, Bitcoin, who can prohibit it? No one,” Mr Putin said.
There are sceptics, though. Comparing Bitcoin with gold, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said earlier in December: “People are not using it as a form of payment, or as a store of value. It’s highly volatile, it’s not a competitor for the dollar.”
Bitcoin has surged more than 50 per cent since the Nov 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 US$3.8 trillion (S$5.1 trillion), according to data provider CoinGecko.
Trump in December named a White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies, former PayPal executive David Sacks, a close friend of Trump adviser and mega donor Elon Musk.
Trump also said he would nominate pro-crypto Washington attorney Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Dec 13, exchange operator Nasdaq said MicroStrategy will be added to the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 Index after a meteoric surge in the shares of the Bitcoin buyer.
MicroStrategy, an aggressive investor in the world’s largest crypto asset, has seen its shares soar more than six-fold in 2024, taking its market value to almost US$94 billion. It is now the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency.
REUTERS
