Bitcoin attained a historic feat as it reached $104k soon after Paul Atkins was announced as the Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Meanwhile, some crypto experts anticipate a continued run to $500k and $1 million, while others expect a temporal pullback from the current position.
Bitcoin (BTC) makes history as it surges past $100k for the first time since inception and proceeds to set a new all-time high price at $104k. Fascinatingly, it only needed a 7% uptick on its 24-hour price chart to reach this feat. Meanwhile, its daily trading volume remains significantly high, as $117 billion was changing hands at press time. In percentage-wise, this represents a 68% increment from the previous day.
Possible Reasons for the Growth
Looking into the possible catalyst, we discovered that this significant ascension coincided with the announcement that former Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Paul Atkins is the replacement of Gary Gensler, just as we earlier disclosed. On Wednesday, the US president-elect, Donald Trump, highlighted Atkins’ numerous achievements on his Truth Social platform. Fascinatingly, one that caught the attention of the crypto fraternity is his crypto advocacy.
He also recognizes that digital assets and other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater Than Ever Before.
Meanwhile, it is also reported that Key Square Capital Management founder Scott Bessent has been nominated as Secretary of Treasury. On record, Bessent earlier expressed his excitement about Trump’s interest in crypto and how “everything is on the table with Bitcoin.”
The CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnik has also been said to lead the Commerce department. It is worth noting that his firm provides custody for USDT stablecoin’s backing. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell has labeled Bitcoin as a digital gold at the DealBook Summit:
It’s just like gold, only it’s virtual, it’s digital.
Apart from the Trump effect and the institutional involvement via spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF), Bitcoin is reported to have entered the bullish zone of its four-year halving cycle.
As we formerly reported, the block rewards for Bitcoin were reduced to 3.125 BTC on April 19, 2024. This diminished the supply growth and subjected the price to subsequential growth with the increasing demand.
Will Bitcoin Stop Here?
According to Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, Bitcoin will end 2024 at $125,000. By December 31, 2025, the price could hit $200k. Kendrick justified his prediction by highlighting that Trump’s pro-crypto pledges, including replacing Gary Gensler and establishing a Bitcoin strategic reserve, could be the tailwind.
We’ve gone from [President Joe] Biden who was proactively negative about the industry, to Trump, who is proactively positive…I’d say that gets done quite quickly after Trump takes office on January 20.
For the Chief Investment Officer for exchange-traded fund provider Bitwise Matt Hougan, Bitcoin is in line to breach the $500k level. Fascinatingly, co-founder of BitMEX Arthur Hayes expects the asset to reach $1 million.
Meanwhile, the CEO of the crypto exchange Bitget, Gracy Chen, anticipates a pullback of $74k after crossing the $100k line. Prior to this unprecedented move, 15% of Bitcoin options trades hinted that some traders were expecting the asset to fall between $45,000 and $60,000, according to BasedMoney.
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