Bitcoin’s price has hit the $100,000 mark for the first time in history as demand for the cryptocurrency surged following the election of Donald Trump and other crypto-friendly lawmakers in the US election.
The world’s leading cryptocurrency is currently valued at close to $103,000, having risen over 7 per cent in the last 24 hours, as the president-elect announced plans to nominate pro-crypto businessperson Paul Atkins to chair the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The SEC oversees US securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading a government crackdown on the crypto industry.
Mr Atkins, the chief of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, is a “proven leader for common sense regulations,” Mr Trump said on Wednesday.
Bitcoin’s value has more than doubled since the beginning of this year and has surged by over 45 per cent since 5 November.
In the lead-up to the US elections, Mr Trump had pledged to create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin.
He promised to end what he called the “persecution” of the crypto industry and build the US into the “bitcoin superpower of the world”.
The US president-elect even floated the idea of using bitcoin to “pay off the $35 trillion” US national debt in August.
“Hand them a little crypto check, right? We’ll hand them a little bitcoin and wipe out our $35 trillion,” he told Fox Business.
Since Mr Trump’s election victory, shares in the crypto platform Coinbase have surged by over 70 per cent and crypto industry players continue to voice support for the president-elect in the hope that he will push through favourable regulatory changes.
US Rep. Patrick McHenry from North Carolina, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, said Atkins could “restore faith in the SEC”.
“I’m confident his leadership will lead to clarity for the digital asset ecosystem and ensure US capital markets remain the envy of the world,” Mr McHenry posted on X.
Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase, said in a post on X that Atkins’ appointment was “sorely needed and cannot come a day too soon”.
“We appreciate his commitment to balance in regulating US securities markets and look forward to his fresh leadership at (the SEC),” Mr Grewal said.
Critics are concerned Mr Atkins may whittle away existing regulations and charge lower penalties for violations.
Dennis Kelleher, co-founder of the financial policy think tank Better Markets, called Mr Atkins an “industry cheerleader” whose support for deregulation contributed to the “devastating 2008 crash”.
“I think the nomination of Atkins would signal and would be understood as a return to the status quo before Gensler. Back to business as usual for the SEC,” Alex Platt, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, told Bloomberg.
Bitcoin first emerged 15 years ago from a white paper written by the still-unknown pseudonymous author Satoshi Nakamoto.
