Bitcoin jumped above $100,000 for the first time on Thursday, a feat hailed by even skeptics as a coming of age for cryptocurrencies as investors bet on a friendly US administration to boost cryptocurrencies’ standing in financial markets.
The total value of the cryptocurrency market has nearly doubled in the year to date to reach a record high of $3.8 trillion, according to data provider CoinGecko. By comparison, Apple alone is worth about $3.7 trillion.
Bitcoin’s march from the libertarian fringes to Wall Street has created millionaires, a new asset class, and popularized the concept of “decentralized finance” in a volatile and often controversial period since its inception 16 years ago.
Bitcoin’s value has more than doubled this year and has risen by more than 50% in the four weeks following Donald Trump’s landslide election victory, which also saw a slew of pro-crypto lawmakers elected to Congress.
Once its price broke $100,000 in the Asian morning on Thursday, it quickly crossed $103,000 and was last at $103,335.
“We are witnessing a paradigm shift,” said Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of US cryptocurrency company Galaxy Digital.
“Bitcoin and the entire digital asset ecosystem are on the cusp of entering the financial mainstream – and this momentum is fueled by institutional adoption, advances in tokenization and payments, and a clearer regulatory path.”
Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “cryptocurrency capital of the planet” and to build up a national stockpile of bitcoin.
“We were trading sideways for about seven months, and then right after November 5th, US investors resumed fist-buying,” said Joe McCann, CEO and founder of a digital asset hedge fund in Miami.
Trump said on Wednesday that he would nominate Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, has been involved in cryptocurrency policy as co-chair of the Token Alliance, which works to “advance best practices for digital asset issuance and trading platforms,” and the Chamber of Digital Commerce.
A slew of cryptocurrency companies including Ripple, Kraken, and Circle are also vying for a seat on the cryptocurrency advisory board promised by Trump.
Bitcoin has proven to survive severe recessions.
Its move into six-figure territory is a notable comeback from the decline to below $16,000 in 2022 when the industry was reeling from the FTX exchange collapse. Founder Sam Bankman Freed was subsequently imprisoned.
Analysts say the embrace of bitcoin by major investors this year has been the driving force behind the record rally.
U.S.-listed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds were approved in January and have served as a conduit for widespread buying, with more than $4 billion flowing into these funds since the election.
“Roughly 3% of the total supply of bitcoin that will ever exist was purchased in 2024 by institutional money,” said Jeff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered Bank.
“Digital assets, as an asset class, have become normalized,” he said. “If you fast forward a number of years on the trading floor, you will have a sales and trading desk…which will exist alongside FX, rates and commodities.”
They have already become increasingly financial in nature, with the launch of bitcoin futures in 2017 and a strong debut for options on BlackRock ETFs in November.
Cryptocurrency-related stocks have risen alongside the price of bitcoin, with shares of bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings and exchange operator Coinbase rising about 65% in November.
Trump himself unveiled a new cryptocurrency business venture, World Liberty Financial, in September, though details are scarce, and billionaire Elon Musk, a key Trump ally, is also a cryptocurrency supporter.