Bitcoin surges above $106,000 on strategic reserve hopes
(Reuters) – Bitcoin rose to a record high above $106,000 in early Asian trade on Monday, boosted by comments from President-elect Donald Trump that suggested he plans to create a strategic U.S. bitcoin reserve similar to his strategic oil reserve.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, hit a high of $106,533 and last traded at $105,688.
“We’re in blue sky territory here,” said IG analyst Tony Sycamore the news.”
“We’re going to do something great with crypto because we don’t want China or anybody, not just China, but other people taking it, and we want to be the leader,” Trump told CNBC late last week.
When asked if he plans to build a crypto-reserve similar to oil reserves, Trump replied: “Yes, I think so.”
Other countries are also considering strategic cryptocurrency reserves.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month questioned the need to hold government reserves in foreign currency, saying domestic investment of such reserves is more attractive.
Putin said the current US administration is undermining the US dollar’s role as a reserve currency in the global economy by using it for political purposes, forcing many countries to turn to alternative assets, including cryptocurrencies.
For example, Bitcoin, who can ban it, no one,” Putin said.
However, there are skeptics since Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell compared bitcoin to gold earlier this month.
“People don’t use it as a form of payment or as a store of value. It’s very volatile, it’s not a competitor to the dollar.”
CRYPTO BOOST:
Bitcoin has surged more than 50% since the election on November 5, when Trump was elected along with many other pro-crypto candidates. according to data provider CoinGecko.
Trump this month named former PayPal chief David Sachs, a close friend of Trump adviser and megadonor Elon Musk, as White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies.
Trump also said he would nominate Washington defense attorney Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Friday, exchange operator Nasdaq said MicroStrategy would be added to the tech Nasdaq-100 index following a meteoric rise in the bitcoin buyer’s shares.
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