Bitcoin Hits Fresh Record High as Trump Team Mulls Creating New White House Role Dedicated to Cryptocurrency Policy

Bitcoin rose sharply over the past two weeks, with gains sparked largely by Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election.

Bitcoin price rose on Wednesday as President-elect Donald Trump's team considers creating a new White House role dedicated to cryptocurrency policy, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

Bitcoin gained 0.1% to $93,730 by 1:56 pを読んでいてくださいm. ET (1856 GMT). The world’s biggest crypto hit a record high of nearly $94,836.1 earlier in the day.

Bitcoin rises on Trump trade

Bitcoin has risen sharply over the past two weeks, with gains largely driven by Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election.

In a sign that Trump is following up on his promise to make the United States the crypto capital of the world, the president-elect is reportedly considering creating a new White House role dedicated to cryptocurrency policy.

Trump's team is vetting candidates to serve in a dedicated crypto role, Bloomberg reported. The news comes as many are awaiting details on what Trump's policies will be for crypto, with the president-elect set to take office in about two months.

Sentiment toward Bitcoin was also boosted by MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR), the world's largest corporate holder of the coin, buying a record $4.6 billion of the coin in the past week. MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor indicated that the company will continue to buy more coins, issuing more debt to fund its purchases.

Bitcoin's new record high helped by ETF options launch

Options trading for a spot Bitcoin ETF (TSX:EBIT) launched on Tuesday, helping propel Bitcoin's price to a new all-time high.

BlackRock's (NYSE:BLK) iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) became the first spot Bitcoin ETF to be approved for options trading, generating nearly $1.9 billion in notional exposure on its first day, according to Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart.

"Final tally of $IBIT's 1st day of options is just shy of $1.9 billion in notional exposure traded via 354k contracts. 289k were Calls and 65k were Puts," Seyffart said in a post on X, adding, "These options were almost certainly part of the move to the new bitcoin all-time highs today."

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted the scale of the activity, noting in his own post on X, "$1.9b is unheard of for Day One. For context, ProShares Bitcoin ETF (NYSE:BITO) did $363 million and that's been around for four years."

Crypto price today: altcoins mixed

Broader crypto markets also advanced on Wednesday, following Bitcoin's another record-breaking session.

Meanwhile, risk appetite in stock markets faltered as investors prepared for market darling NVIDIA Corporation's (NASDAQ:NVDA) closely watched earnings, due later on Wednesday.

In crypto, world no.2 cryptocurrency Ether fell 1% to $3,040.31.

XRP and MATIC fell 1.6% and 1.4%, respectively, while ADA surged over 6%.

Among meme tokens, Dogecoin fell 10%, remaining in sight of a three-year high hit earlier in November following Trump's victory.

Trump referenced the token with the formation of the Department of Government Efficiency, to be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, adding to the social media buzz around the popular meme token.

Ambar Warrick also contributed to this report.