Bitcoin Climbs to Record High, Extending Rally Sparked by Trump's Support

The largest token rose more than 3% at one point on Monday in Asia to an unprecedented $106,493, exceeding its previous peak from Dec. 5.

Bitcoin hit a new record high on Monday, continuing a rally sparked by President-elect Donald Trump’s support for digital assets and his plan to turn the US into a dominant force in the sector.

The largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 3% in Asia to a new high of $106,493, surpassing its previous peak on Dec. 5. The gains helped fuel sentiment in the broader crypto market.

Trump is moving to create a favorable regulatory environment for digital assets, reversing a clampdown imposed by President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration. The Republican has also backed the idea of a strategic national Bitcoin stockpile, although the latter is widely seen as impractical.

“A lot of people are basing their expectation on a much more favorable administration,” Aya Kantorovich, co-founder of institutional crypto platform August, said on Bloomberg Television. That optimism is reflected in demand for exchange-traded funds that invest in digital assets, she added.

On Friday, Nasdaq Global Indexes said that Bitcoin accumulator MicroStrategy Inc. will join the Nasdaq 100 Index. The software maker’s transformation into a leveraged bet on Bitcoin has fascinated Wall Street. The company has been raising capital to put billions of dollars into the digital asset.

Bitcoin clocked up a seven-week winning streak through Sunday, marking its longest such run since 2021. However, the pace of gains has slowed recently, which could be a sign that “a pullback may be coming,” IG Australia Pty Market Analyst Tony Sycamore wrote in a note.

The original cryptocurrency last traded at $106,215 as of 8:39 a.m. on Monday in Singapore. Smaller tokens including second-ranked Ether, XRP and meme-crowd favorite Dogecoin also advanced.

US ETFs that invest directly in Bitcoin have seen $12.2 billion in net inflows since Trump won the presidential election on Nov. 5. Subscriptions for similar products that track Ether have reached $2.8 billion over the same period.

--With assistance from Adam Haigh.