Bitcoin Hits Record High Above $80,000 as Crypto Industry Celebrates Trump's Election Victory

Bitcoin is up 80 per cent this year, dwarfing the S&P 500's still-electric 25.7 per centgain this year. After briefly touching the $80,000 milestone, bitcoin was trading just below it Sunday mid-morning.

Bitcoin hit a new record Sunday morning, continuing its rally in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory.

Bitcoin was last up 80 per cent in 2024, far outpacing the S&P 500’s still-stellar 25.7 per cent gain this year. After briefly hitting the $80,000 milestone, bitcoin was trading just below it Sunday mid-morning.

The crypto industry largely sees Trump’s victory as a bullish sign for bitcoin and other digital currencies. Despite Trump’s earlier bitcoin skepticism — he once said the crypto "was based on thin air" — he has fully embraced crypto in recent months, unlike the Biden administration, which has sought to rein in crypto.

One major reason for Trump’s crypto about-face: He now has a financial stake in the crypto industry. In September, Trump and his children launched a new crypto business called World Liberty Financial.

“It’s very young and very growing,” Trump said of the cryptocurrency industry on September 16 while unveiling World Liberty Financial. “I do believe in it.”

The Biden administration, on the other hand, has been much more skeptical of crypto. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said in June 2021, in one of his first speeches in his then-new job, that crypto was “ripe with fraud, scams and abuses.”

Gensler’s SEC sued several crypto companies and worked to regulate the industry, which the chairman said he believed was at least partially made up of securities that were being traded illegally. The SEC also partnered with other regulators, including the Department of Justice, in going after crypto fraudsters — most notably Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX.

Gensler slow-walked — but ultimately approved — a bitcoin exchange-traded fund, allowing people to add exposure to cryptocurrencies in their retirement accounts. In January 2024, Gensler’s X account was hacked, and his account falsely announced that the long-awaited bitcoin ETF was open for business, which temporarily sent cryptocurrencies soaring.

Trump said in August that cryptocurrencies could “define the future,” and he wanted them "mined, minted and made in the USA." The president-elect also proposed a strategic national bitcoin stockpile, where the U.S. government would directly purchase and invest in cryptocurrencies as a national security measure.

Elon Musk, one of Trump’s most prominent and vocal supporters, is also a well-known crypto bull. Musk’s favorite coin, Dogecoin, was up more than 20 per cent on Sunday and had been rallying all last week.