Why did Bitcoin soar this week?
Crypto stocks jumped this week as crytocurrency Bitcoin soared past $120,000 for the first time.
Today, Bitcoin added about 1% to $117,696, as it stabilised following its 6% pullback earlier this week from Monday’s all-time high at $123,153.22.
But why did Bitcoin reach record highs this week?
It’s been on a steady rise over the past few years and had some steady falls as well.
In 2022, there was a big crypto exchange called FTX that collapsed sending the price down to about $20,000.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House in November has sent the price of Bitcoin higher and higher, according to Financial Time Digital Markets Correspondent Nikou Asgari.
“This is why we’ve reached where we’ve reached this week, crypto industry investors, people who work in the industry are just so delighted by Trump, by all the things that he’s saying about crypto, he’s very pro crypto,” said Ms Asgari.
“His family is very pro crypto, he’s made everyone very happy and sent the price of Bitcoin to a record high.”
Some financial institutions have said they are seeing more client demand for crypto products as the price of bitcoin hits record highs, helped by U.S. President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance.
The Standard Chartered Bank said today that it will allow institutional clients to trade bitcoin and ether through its UK branch, becoming what it said was the first global systemically important bank to offer such crypto services.
US lawmakers are on the verge of passing landmark legislation that will give the much-maligned crypto world much-wanted legitimacy, riding on President Donald Trump’s recent embrace of the industry.
The US House of Representatives is set to vote on three pieces of legislation in what has been dubbed ‘crypto week’.
Policy makers failed to clear a key procedural hurdle yesterday and crypto stocks dipped – but President Trump said they’ve all agreed to vote today.
One piece of legislation, the GENIUS Act includes the use and regulation of stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to safe assets like the dollar.
The other bills are the Clarity Act and The Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act.
“Three bills are set to be voted on and widely expected to be passed, and they’re all in one way or another going to bring rules for different parts of the crypto industry,” said Ms Asgari.
“If and when they are passed, it will give investors, people like you or me or also like much bigger investors, a lot more confidence in saying yes, we can hold these tokens, we can trade crypto, we can sort of do all these things that maybe we’ve been a little bit afraid to do.
“That’s why everyone is so excited that week this crypto week, these bills might get passed.”
The raft of legislation comes after years of suspicion against the crypto industry amid the belief in the Biden administration that the sector, born out of the success of bitcoin, should be kept on a tight leash and away from mainstream investors.