Agencies
Bitcoin soared to a record high above $81,000 on Monday, based on expectations that cryptocurrencies would boom in a favorable regulatory environment following the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and pro-crypto candidates to Congress.
The world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency has now more than doubled from the year’s low of $38,505 and was last at $81,572, having touched a record high of $81,899.
Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.
Other so-called "Trump trades”from U.S. stocks to shorting bonds have lost some steam since the election, but cryptocurrencies haven’t paused for breath.
"Bitcoin’s Trump-pump is alive and well ... with Republicans on the cusp of taking the house to confirm a red wave in Congress, it seems the crypto crowd is betting on digital-currency deregulation,” said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index, referring to Republican control of both houses.
While Simpson warned that Trump’s near-term priorities will likely lie elsewhere, crypto investors see an end to stepped-up scrutiny under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, whom Trump said he would fire.In Ohio, one of the crypto industry’s biggest foes in CongressSenate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown was ousted, while pro-crypto candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties won in Michigan, West Virginia, Indiana, Alabama and North Carolina.