Historic first! Bitcoin breaks through the $80,000 mark, is the next stop $100,000?

Driven by the support for digital assets from the newly elected President Trump and the prospect of pro-cryptocurrency lawmakers in Congress, Bitcoin broke through $80,000 for the first time this past Sunday.

Trump announced his victory in Arizona, marking a sweeping win across seven battleground states in the U.S. His decisive victory in the presidential election sparked a frenzy in the cryptocurrency industry, which spent over $100 million supporting a range of pro-cryptocurrency candidates during the election.

Le Shi, Managing Director of the market-making firm Auros in Hong Kong, said, “Given that people believe Trump supports cryptocurrency, it was only a matter of time before some form of rally occurred, and that’s what we are seeing now.”

Bitcoin surged 4.7% on Sunday, reaching an unprecedented $80,092 before pulling back. Some cryptocurrency analysts view $100,000 as the 'next stop', believing it could be reached before the end of the year. As of the time of writing, Bitcoin continued to set new highs, rising to $81,476 per coin.

During his campaign, Trump vowed to make the U.S. the center of the digital asset industry, including establishing a Bitcoin strategic reserve and appointing regulators interested in digital assets.

With strong demand for exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. and the Federal Reserve's interest rate cuts, Bitcoin has risen about 91% so far in 2024. The largest digital token's gains have outpaced those of U.S. stocks and gold since the election voting.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the ETF backed by BlackRock's $35 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust set a record for nearly $1.4 billion in daily net inflows last Thursday. A day earlier, trading volume for the iShares ETF surged to an all-time high—all signs indicating that Trump's victory is reshaping cryptocurrency.

Trump's stance sharply contrasts with the crackdown on digital assets during the Biden administration. Gary Gensler, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has repeatedly described the industry as rife with fraud and misconduct. Following the market crash in 2022 and a series of bankruptcies (notably the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange), the agency has taken a hard line on cryptocurrency.

Digital asset companies and executives spent heavily during the U.S. election to promote candidates they believed would benefit their interests.

“Trump's promise to support regulation, along with the 'sweep' in the House and Senate, makes the cryptocurrency bill more likely to pass,” wrote Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter