The original cryptocurrency notched a new all-time high on Wednesday, breaking through the psychological barrier of $100,000 and then climbing even higher. The surge comes amid a climate of broader exuberance in the crypto industry, which is anticipating that the election of Donald Trump will lead to looser regulation and more blockchain innovation in the U.S.
Bitcoin punched through the $100,000 mark around 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time and continued to climb on Wednesday evening, trading for around $103,600 before giving up some of those gains. Bitcoin was trading around $103,000 at midnight EST.
Crypto markets are notoriously volatile, and unlike the stock market, it is hard to identify an exact price since there is slight discrepancy across different exchanges. On Wednesday night, Bitcoin was trading above $100,000 on every exchange while other cryptocurrencies soared, too.
The price for so-called alt-coins soared as well with the tokens for blockchains like Ethereum and Dogecoin climbing around 7%. Unlike earlier phases of crypto, however, the Bitcoin rally did not lift all coins.
Solana, the prime competitor to Ethereum, stayed mostly flat. Meanwhile, XRP tokens, associated with the blockchain firm Ripple, dropped around 10%; the drop, though, came after XRP climbed a remarkable 65% or so in the past week.
The new record high for Bitcoin came the same day President-elect Donald Trump announced he had selected Paul Atkins, a libertarian and former regulator, to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. The crypto market responded to Atkins’s proposed appointment with glee. Atkins is slated to succeed current SEC Chair Gary Gensler, an acolyte of progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is virulently anti-crypto and is widely despised by blockchain executives and many in the broader financial community for his aggressive regulatory strategy.
More broadly, the crypto market has climbed thanks to the massive popularity of new ETFs launched by the likes of BlackRock and Fidelity, which provided conservative investors with a way to buy Bitcoin in the form of shares.
Bitcoin’s latest all-time high comes amid a new crypto bull market that gained steam early this year, when Bitcoin was trading for around $42,000.
The current price mania comes as crypto is in the midst of its fourth major bull cycle. Launched in 2009, Bitcoin—the original cryptocurrency—traded for pennies in its early years before its first big breakout in 2013, which saw it cross $1,000. Subsequent boom periods saw Bitcoin hit an all-time high of just below $20,000 in 2017, and then hit a new high of around $65,000 in 2021.