Bitcoin soared to a new all-time high, boosted by President-elect Donald Trump’s support for the digital asset and traders betting that the Republican’s return to the White House would benefit the cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency has been on the rise since Republican candidate Trump won the US presidential election on Tuesday. Bitcoin reached $75,000 on Wednesday, surpassing its previous all-time high of $73,797.98 reached in March. On Sunday, the cryptocurrency rose 4.7 per cent to an unprecedented $80,092.
Trump has previously said repeatedly during the campaign that if re-elected as US president, he would pledge to put the country at the centre of the digital asset industry, including creating a strategic bitcoin reserve and appointing regulators enamoured with digital assets.
He promised to make the US the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world,” and to commission tech billionaire and right-wing conspiracy theory advocate Elon Musk to conduct a wide-ranging audit of government spending. In September, he announced the launch of a digital currency platform called World Liberty Financial.
Bitcoin gained about 91 per cent in 2024, helped by robust demand for specialised US exchange-traded funds and interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.