The cryptocurrency community is cheering after Trump nominated a cryptocurrency-friendly man to chair the SEC.
On Wednesday, cryptocurrency speculators once again pushed the price of bitcoin near the $100,000 mark after President-elect Donald Trump chose digital asset proponent Paul Atkins to lead the SEC.
At one point on Thursday, Bitcoin topped the $99,000 mark, following a more than 40 percent rise in the price since Trump’s Nov. 5 election win.
Trump has promised to undo the Biden administration’s crackdown on digital assets. parataxis’ Ed Chin said, “Whether it’s Atkins or someone else, as long as it’s not the status quo.”
If confirmed, the former Republican SEC commissioner is expected to focus on reducing regulation and lowering fines for violations. Recently, Atkins has been a strong supporter of digital assets and fintech companies. On Wall Street, there are growing signs of a greater willingness to participate in the controversial market.
Trump’s targets
Ikigai’s Travis Kling said, “Atkins is arguably the most ideal SEC chairman for cryptocurrencies. He has strong libertarian leanings and a clear mandate from Trump to strongly support cryptocurrencies, which I have every confidence he will do.”
President-elect Trump has promised to make the U.S. a global cryptocurrency center and has even backed the idea of a national strategic bitcoin reserve, although there are doubts about the viability of the latter goal.
TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote in a report that a bitcoin reserve conflicts with Trump’s view of the U.S. dollar as the “indestructible” pillar currency of the world.
Trump will likely still promote the Bitcoin Reserve on social media or mention it in his speeches,” Seiberg said. But that’s not the same as applying the significant political capital needed to make it happen.”
Atkins will replace Gensler, who took a series of enforcement actions against alleged violations and risky behavior in the digital asset space, and the cryptocurrency sector suffered a crash in 2022 as a result, causing investors to lose huge sums of money.
Volatility in South Korea
The price of bitcoin and other tokens, such as XRP and the popular dogcoin, had previously diverged markedly from general global levels in South Korea due to heightened risk aversion as a result of political turmoil.
South Korean President Yun Seok-yeol announced the imposition of martial law late Tuesday due to a deepening rift with the opposition, but its reversal of the shocking move hours after a parliamentary rebuke caught global markets off guard, with bitcoin’s price on South Korean exchanges falling below $72,000 at one point on Tuesday.
The overall cryptocurrency market has seen a record surge since Trump’s election as president, rising about $1.3 trillion, according to tracker CoinGecko. The rise has replicated the digital asset boom during the bubble during the New Crown Epidemic. on Nov. 22, the price of bitcoin was just $300 away from topping $100,000 before falling back.
Cryptocurrency trading volumes climbed to record levels in November, with more than $10 trillion in digital assets changing hands on centralized spot and derivatives exchanges. Total trading volume in the cryptocurrency space doubled last month, according to data compiled by CCData.
