Bitcoin had been widely expected to reach $100,000 since the U.S. presidential election but investors sent it to this mark much sooner than expected.
The price of bitcoin soared past the long-awaited $100,000 benchmark for the first time ever late Wednesday evening.
The flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by more than 8% at $103,275.00, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as high as $103,844.05. Bitcoin is now up more than 140% in 2024 and 48% since the election.
The move came hours after President-elect Donald Trump announced plans to nominate Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, fulfilling perhaps his most important campaign promise to the crypto industry: to replace Gary Gensler, who has become something of a villain in crypto for the agency’s regulation-by-enforcement approach to the industry under his leadership.
It’s a day of celebration for longtime bitcoin investors, who have held on for dear life, or « HODL’d » through several of the cryptocurrency’s boom and bust cycles, during which government and financial institutions remained dismissive — and even hostile — toward the asset class.
