Bitcoin still higher: the queen of cryptocurrencies crossed the $100,000 mark on Thursday, December 5 for the very first time, exactly one month after the election in the United States of Donald Trump, a fervent promoter of cryptocurrencies. The “Trump effect” continues to boost the largest cryptocurrency by capitalization: around 4:06 a.m. French time, bitcoin was trading at $103,800.44, a record.
Such a level, far from being imagined 16 years ago when the currency was created, gives a little more credibility to the digital assets sector, sometimes subject to controversy, which sees the return of the Republican leader to the presidency as a boon. White House, especially with Elon Musk at his side. Because after calling cryptocurrencies a scam during his first term, Donald Trump changed his tune during his campaign – partly financing the sector. He now swears that he will make the United States “the world capital of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies”.
Consequence: bitcoin, which hovered around $69,000 on November 5, the day of the election, has swelled by more than 46% since. Its price even soared by more than 8% during the night from Wednesday to Thursday: at the origin of this bout of fever, the president-elect announced that he planned to appoint Republican lawyer Paul Atkins as head. the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “This strategic appointment has electrified the crypto community, reinforcing optimism about a more accommodating regulatory landscape” and more generally “a lenient approach towards the booming digital assets market”, observes Stephen Innes, of SPI Asset Management.
Last year, Paul Atkins publicly criticized SEC officials, saying they should have been “more accommodating” with “crypto” companies and accusing their approach of turning entrepreneurs away from the American market. “Paul recognizes that digital assets are crucial to making America greater than it has ever been,” commented Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform. Paul Atkins will succeed Gary Gensler, whose repressive approach to digital currencies raised eyebrows in the sector – and whose early resignation in November had already caused the price of bitcoin to jump.
Soon bitcoins to pay taxes?
While the frenzy of speculators resumed after the Thanksgiving break, the prospect of relaxed regulation fuels “the hope of seeing cryptocurrencies integrate more deeply into economic life,” notes Samer Hasn of XS. com.
The surge was also fueled by the possibility of Donald Trump creating a ministry responsible for cryptocurrencies, recently noted Kathleen Brooks, expert for the broker XTB. “Could he be the president who allows cryptocurrencies to become mainstream, will Americans be able to use them to pay their taxes? There’s a greater chance of that happening,” she added. In 2021, El Salvador was the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, without convincing the population.
Donald Trump could also create a strategic reserve of bitcoins in the United States, mainly thanks to the tokens seized by the courts, which would further legitimize the currency among other countries.
Quest for respectability
Many cryptocurrencies and companies in the sector saw their prices explode after the American election, like the Bitcoin service provider MicroStrategy and the exchange platform Coinbase. Dogecoin, a crypto initially created as a joke, and which Elon Musk became infatuated with from 2019, has also ridden the wave. Elon Musk was also appointed by Donald Trump to head a “government efficiency commission”, whose acronym in English is “Doge”.
Bitcoin was born in 2008 from a libertarian dream: to escape the control of financial institutions by relying on a technology (“blockchain”) which makes it possible to record transactions in a decentralized and unfalsifiable manner thanks to a network of computers in the whole world. Bitcoin, like other cryptocurrencies, will be involved in several financial scandals over the years, the preferred currency of computer hackers or to monetize illicit activities. Bitcoin is today in search of respectability: in addition to the experience of El Salvador, followed by the Central African Republic, certain merchants accept it as a means of payment, as Elon Musk did for his Tesla cars – before turning around. face.
In the United States, two new investment products (ETFs), one tracking the performance of bitcoin, the other that of ether, the second main cryptocurrency, have attracted tens of billions this year, contributing to the soaring course.