By Ankur Banerjee, Samuel Indyk and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
SINGAPORE/LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Bitcoin surged to a record high just shy of $85,000 on Monday (NASDAQ:) on expectations that cryptocurrencies will thrive in a light-touch regulatory environment following the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and of pro-crypto candidates to Congress.
The world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency has more than doubled from the year’s low of $38,505 and was last at $84,551, up 5.8% from late on Sunday, having earlier touched a record high of $84,985.
U.S.-listed cryptocurrency stocks also surged, with crypto exchange Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:) jumping more than 16% and iShares Trust up more than 9%
Crypto miner Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:) surged 17%, while MicroStrategy, one of bitcoin’s biggest corporate backers, gained nearly 19%.
Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.
“The latest all-time high is going to be particularly important for the trajectory bitcoin will travel in the next 12 months. I believe crossing $80,000 — which is a nice, big round number — will catch the eye of many investors,” Anthony Pompliano, founder & chief executive officer at Professional Capital Management, wrote on Monday.
“It is hard to find a compelling argument to be bearish or reserved right now,” he added.
Pompliano has been a major bitcoin investor in recent years.
Short sellers of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related stocks have suffered heavy losses since Nov. 6, after bitcoin surged to record highs. Combined short-selling losses on Coinbase, crypto miners Riot Platforms and MARA Holdings, as well as blockchain-farm operator Bitfarms were about $1.2 billion, as of the Nov. 8 close.
END TO CRYPTO SCRUTINY
Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index, noted that Trump’s near-term priorities may lie elsewhere, but crypto investors see an end to stepped-up scrutiny under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler whom Trump has said he will fire.
The cryptocurrency industry spent more than $119 million backing pro-crypto congressional candidates, many of whom won their races.
In Ohio, one of the crypto industry’s biggest foes in Congress – Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown – was ousted, while pro-crypto candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties won in Michigan, West Virginia, Indiana, Alabama and North Carolina.
Trump also unveiled a new crypto business, World Liberty Financial, in September. Although details about the business have been scarce, investors have taken his personal interest in the sector as a positive signal.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a major Trump ally, is also a proponent of cryptocurrencies.
Eric Trump, one of the president-elect’s sons and executive vice president of his private conglomerate, The Trump Organization, is a keynote speaker at a bitcoin conference in Abu Dhabi next month, according to the event organisers.
“The incoming Trump administration may lead to expedited regulatory clarity, enhanced institutional participation, improved market infrastructure, and broader mainstream adoption,” Deutsche Bank (ETR:) research analyst Marion Laboure said.
“Trump’s pragmatic approach marks a clear departure from recent regulatory restrictions.”
Flows into cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds have also picked up since Trump’s election win. On Thursday, Nov. 7, bitcoin ETFs experienced their largest inflows on record, drawing a net $1.38 billion, according to data from Citigroup (NYSE:).
Gains in cryptocurrencies have been broad. hit a more than three-month high above $3,300 and was last at $3,298.86, up nearly 4%. , an alternative cryptocurrency that began as a satirical critique of the 2013 crypto frenzy, was at a three-year high.
Deutsche Bank’s Laboure expects rate cuts from the Federal Reserve to add to the supportive environment for the cryptocurrency market.
