Bitcoin breaks $100,000 barrier, rallying after Trump election and SEC nomination

Bitcoin has soared past $100,000 for the first time, hitting a significant milestone as investors expect stronger political and regulatory support under US President-elect Donald Trump.

The cryptocurrency reached a valuation of $103,587, climbing over 6% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. This is an increase of more than 50% since Trump’s election victory in November.

Adding to the optimism, Trump announced on Wednesday his nomination of crypto advocate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the primary market regulator. Atkins, a former SEC commissioner during George W. Bush’s administration, is known for opposing excessive market regulation and has been a prominent supporter of cryptocurrencies, raising hopes for a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment.

As ReadWrite reported this week, Perianne Boring, Summer Mersinger, and Caroline Pham are also the front-runners being considered to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The agency could soon have greater powers over the cryptocurrency industry.

Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase, wrote on X: “Every government, especially those looking to create a hedge against inflation, should create a Bitcoin strategic reserve.”

If you bought $100 of Bitcoin when Coinbase was founded in June 2012, it would now be worth about $1,500,000.

If you kept the $100 USD you'd only be able to purchase about $73 worth of goods today.

Bitcoin is the best performing asset of the last 12 years, and it's still early… pic.twitter.com/dvBgX5K7or

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) December 5, 2024

The cryptocurrency market has seen a significant reversal of fortune as seen by its rise past $100,000. This is in contrast from two years ago when the collapse of FTX in late 2022 triggered a market crisis and caused the price of Bitcoin to drop to $16,000.

Last year, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange globally, was fined $4.3 billion for failing to prevent money laundering. Meanwhile, FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March for customer fraud.

Under the leadership of Chair Gary Gensler, the SEC has launched multiple lawsuits against major figures in the cryptocurrency sector, including exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com, the payment provider Ripple, and the blockchain software company Consensys.

Featured image: Canva

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