The price of Bitcoin above $100,000 for the first time late Wednesday, and rose to early trading on Thursday.
Fresh gains extended a rally set off Thanks to the election of former President Donald Trump, this is friendly towards cryptocurrency
in a publication about Social Truth on Thursday, Trump took credit for the gains: “CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU’RE WELCOME!!!.”
Since election day, the price of bitcoin has risen almost 50%. This performance S&P 500, which is up about 5% over the same period.
But the rapid pace of bitcoin’s growth raises questions for investors: is it too late to buy into the rally, or will the good times continue?
Investment analysts who spoke to ABC News gave reasons to be optimistic about further gains, citing expectations of a more lenient regulatory environment under Trump and continued. reductions in interest rates At the Federal Reserve.
A surge in momentum alone could pull investors off the sidelines, pushing bitcoin’s price higher, they added.
Analysts, however, cautioned that bitcoin remains a highly volatile asset, and it is impossible to predict where its price will go.
“Bitcoin clearly has some things going for it,” said Mark Hamrick, Washington bureau chief and senior economic analyst at Bankrate.com.
“The problem with Bitcoin is that it’s unclear what drives the underlying fundamentals of the asset,” Hamrick added. “If someone asks where bitcoin is going next week, month or year, I have no idea.”
At least for now, bitcoin is on a tear. The latest surge coincided with some good news for the crypto industry: Trump’s nomination of Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
Atkins, CEO of consulting firm Patomak Partners, is chairman of the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization.
Once a critic of crypto, Trump has vowed to strengthen the cryptocurrency sector and ease regulations imposed by the Biden administration. Trump has also promised to establish the federal government’s first National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
In this July 27, 2024, file photo, former Republican President Donald Trump gestures during the Bitcoin 2024 event in Nashville.
Kevin Wurm/Reuters, FILE
The positive developments in crypto extend beyond Trump. In recent months, the Fed has cut off interest rates and anticipated additional rate cuts. In theory, lower rates could ease consumer borrowing costs and encourage more investment in bitcoin.
This year’s strong performance was also driven by the US approval bitcoin ETFs, or exchange-traded funds, in January. Bitcoin ETFs allow investors to buy an asset that tracks the price movement of bitcoin, avoiding the inconvenience and risk of buying the cryptocurrency itself.
Bret Kenwell, US investment analyst at eToro, said those favorable conditions for bitcoin are likely to persist.
“Those catalysts have the longer-term picture still looking bright for bitcoin,” Kenwell said in a statement to ABC News.
However, experts offered warnings about bitcoin’s volatility. Even amid this year’s meteoric rise, bitcoin experienced a temporary slump that saw its value shrink by a third, Kenwell noted.
As recently as 2021, bitcoin suffered a downturn that cut its value in half. The same thing happened a year earlier, when the early onset of the pandemic sparked panic among investors.
Bitcoin has proven sensitive to negative developments in the crypto and the broader market, in part because it’s difficult to peg the value of the asset, Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told ABC News.
Stock investors typically assess the value of a company’s stock by evaluating its service or product. Because bitcoin is not currently used as anything other than a store of value, the lack of a clear utility leaves little basis for assessing bitcoin’s value, which contributes to its volatile price movements, Sosnick added.
“Bitcoin isn’t really used in the real world,” Sosnick said, noting that the asset could still move higher.
“Right now, the public is very much in love with bitcoin,” Sosnick said. “It’s silly to say that any number — $75,000 or $100,000 or whatever — is the end of the raise.”
