After Donald Trump won the November 6 presidential election, Bitcoin hit a new high of $82,000 on Monday.
The Bitcoin market, the largest and most well-known cryptocurrency in the world, is booming as the former and future president, who has been a strong supporter of cryptocurrencies, takes office in January.
Since November 4, the price of Bitcoin has increased by about $15,000, and in the past day, it has increased by over 3%. According to Reuters, the market has more than doubled in value since January of this year, when it fell as low as $38,505.
Trump promised throughout his campaign to turn America into “the crypto capital of the planet” and suggested incorporating Bitcoin into the national economy as a way to combat increasing inflation.
In addition, Trump said that he would establish “a bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council,” which would allow industry insiders to participate and promote a more cooperative approach to crypto regulation.
According to Coin Telegraph, experts had previously forecast that Trump’s election victory would cause cryptocurrency markets to soar, partly due to his pledge to remove Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler from office and to encourage Bitcoin mining in the nation.
Assuming that Trump would fulfill his pledge to turn the United States into a cryptocurrency center, Alexander Brauneis, a professor at Nottingham Trent University, told Newsweek that the reason why the Bitcoin markets had exploded was because “it will be grist to the crypto mills.”
Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk, he added, is “probably another catalyst for the recent price pump.”
Brauneis stated that “the cryptocurrency space has attracted major companies like BlackRock, hinting retail investors’ demand.”
The iShares Bitcoin Trust fund, currently owned by BlackRock, a significant international investing firm, is the biggest fund for Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency in the world.
“Overall, Trump’s election might be seen as the spark igniting the favorable environment we are currently looking at,” Brauneis stated.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has also been intimately associated with the cryptocurrency markets. Musk has been a loud supporter of the president-elect and has attended several of Trump’s rallies.
When he purchased over $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin in 2021, the market surged to all-time highs.
In addition, Tesla’s stock increased by around 30% in the last week following Trump’s victory, bringing the company’s market value to over $1 trillion and lifting Musk’s personal wealth to over $300 billion.
Following Election Day, Ethereum, another cryptocurrency market, also surpassed $3,200 for the first time in three months.
Since the election, Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that began as a joke but eventually evolved into a digital currency movement, has also grown and hit a record high in the last 12 months.
According to Forbes, the U.S. dollar was up more than 1% vs a number of currencies after Trump’s election, including the euro and the Japanese yen, reaching a four-month high.
“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are among the most volatile assets altogether; it would be surprising if we didn’t see substantial price swings in the months to come,” Brauneis stated in response to a question about what the outlook for the Bitcoin market would be in the upcoming months.
