Bitcoin reached an all-time high of over $106,000 in early Asian trading on Monday, fueled by comments from President-elect Donald Trump suggesting that he may establish a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve, similar to the country’s strategic oil reserve.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency peaked at $106,533 before settling at $105,688. Meanwhile, smaller cryptocurrency ether rose by nearly 3%, reaching $4,014.
Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG, remarked, “We’re in blue sky territory now. The market’s next target is $110,000. The pullback many anticipated didn’t materialize, thanks to this new development.” Trump, in an interview with CNBC late last week, stated, “We’re going to do something significant with crypto because we don’t want China or anyone else – not just China, but others – to take the lead, and we want to be at the forefront.”
When asked if he intended to create a crypto reserve similar to the U.S. oil reserves, Trump responded, “Yeah, I think so.” Other nations have also explored the idea of building cryptocurrency reserves.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently questioned the need for state reserves in foreign currencies, stating that investing these reserves domestically was more attractive. He also criticized the U.S. administration for weakening the role of the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency by politicizing it, which has led many countries to turn to alternative assets, including cryptocurrencies.
Putin remarked, “For example, bitcoin, who can prohibit it? No one.”
However, there are critics, such as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who compared bitcoin to gold earlier this month, saying, “People aren’t using it as a form of payment or a store of value. It’s highly volatile and not a competitor to the dollar.”
Bitcoin’s price has surged over 50% since the November 5 election, which saw Trump and several pro-crypto candidates win. The overall cryptocurrency market has nearly doubled in value this year, reaching a record of over $3.8 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
Trump recently appointed former PayPal executive David Sacks, a close associate of Trump adviser Elon Musk, as a White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies. Trump also plans to nominate pro-crypto attorney Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Additionally, Nasdaq announced that MicroStrategy, a major investor in bitcoin, will be added to the Nasdaq-100 Index. MicroStrategy’s shares have skyrocketed more than sixfold this year, boosting its market value to nearly $94 billion, making it the largest corporate holder of bitcoin.
