Cryptocurrencies continued their rally on Sunday, with Bitcoin reaching $80,000 for the first time.
The price of Bitcoin rose by 4.5%, reaching $79,800.19, according to Coin Metrics.
Ether increased by 3%, surpassing $3,000 on Saturday, and was last priced at $3,203.10.
Smaller coins experienced even larger gains as investors responded to the potential implications of a second term for President-elect Donald Trump.
XRP, the payments coin, surged by 11%, while the decentralized finance token tied to Cardano skyrocketed 40%. Memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu saw impressive gains of 17% and 31%, respectively.
“Crypto is poised to enter a golden era,” Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital, said in a research note Friday. “Trump has promised to make America the ‘crypto capital of the world’ and his high level team is filled with strong crypto advocates … . The pro-crypto nature of his team, family, and donors increases the likelihood that Trump follows through on his campaign promises to the industry.”
Bitcoin has been viewed as a safe asset, regardless of the election’s outcome, partly due to its classification outside of securities laws by the SEC.
Former President Trump has expressed strong support for Bitcoin, even discussing the idea of a strategic national Bitcoin reserve and emphasizing the importance of keeping all Bitcoin mining within the U.S.
Ether and other cryptocurrencies, however, stand to benefit more from the crypto-friendly regulatory changes that Trump has promised, which are reportedly a priority for many within his inner circle. For instance, one factor behind the limited success of spot Bitcoin ETFs compared to Bitcoin ETFs is the lack of distribution of staking rewards.
“In this environment, over the next two years we expect that bitcoin and other digital assets will trade significantly higher than the current all-time high,” Thorn said. “What was once an oppressive headwind in the world’s largest capital market will now shift to a tailwind, and no one is bullish enough.”
