(Reuters) – Bitcoin soared to more than $ 106,000 in early Asian trade on Monday, prompted by comments from President-elect Donald Trump suggesting he plans to build a US bitcoin strategic reserve. Similar to its strategic oil reserves.
The world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, the stock traded as high as $ 106,533 and last traded at $ 105,688. Smaller crypto ethers rose nearly 3% to 4,014.
“We are in the blue sky here,” said Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG. “The next figure the market will look for is $ 110,000. The withdrawal that many have been waiting for has not happened because we have now received this information.”
“We will do something great with crypto because we do not want China or anyone else – not just China, but others are accepting it,” Trump told CNBC last weekend. “And we want to be leaders.”
Asked if he plans to build a crypto-reserves similar to oil reserves, Trump said, “Yes, I think so.”
Other countries are also considering cryptocurrency strategic reserves.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month questioned the need to maintain foreign exchange reserves, saying domestic investment in such reserves is more attractive.
Putin said the current US administration is undermining the role of the US dollar as a reserve currency in the world economy by using it for political purposes, forcing many countries to turn to alternative assets, including the cryptocurrency.
“For example bitcoin, who can ban it?” Putin said.
Despite skepticism, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell likened bitcoin to gold earlier this month.
“People do not use it as a form of payment or as a repository of prices. It is highly volatile, it is not a competitor for the dollar.”
CRYPTO PROMOTION
Bitcoin has risen more than 50% since the Nov. 5 election, which saw Trump elected along with several other pro-cryptocurrency candidates. The total value of the cryptocurrency market has grown nearly twice a year so far, reaching a record $ 3.8 trillion, according to data provider CoinGecko.
Trump this month named the White House for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, former PayPal (NASDAQ 🙂 CEO David Sacks, a close friend of Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk.
Trump also said he would appoint pro-Crypto Washington’s lawyer Paul Atkins as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Friday, Nasdaq exchange operators said that MicroStrategy would be included in the high-tech Nasdaq-100 index after a sharp rise in the share of bitcoin buyers.
MicroStrategy, an aggressive investor in the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset, has seen its stake more than six-fold this year, taking its market value to nearly $ 94 billion. It is now the largest corporate holder of cryptocurrencies.
#Bitcoin #rises #strategic #reserve #hopes #Reuters
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