Bitcoin soars past US$84,000 as Trump’s pro-crypto stance fuels buying spree

Bitcoin rallied past US$84,000 for the first time, boosted by President-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of digital assets and the prospect of a Congress featuring pro-cryptocurrency lawmakers.

Trump was declared the winner in Arizona, marking a clean sweep of the seven US battleground states. His decisive victory in the presidential election has prompted celebratory chest-thumping from the digital-asset industry, which spent more than US$100 million backing a range of crypto-friendly candidates.

The largest token climbed as much as 5.6 per cent to an unprecedented US$84,360 in New York. Bullish sentiment lifted smaller coins too, including Dogecoin, a meme-crowd favourite promoted by Trump supporter Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.

“With the dust from Trump’s victory still settling down, it was only a matter of time before a run-up of some sort occurred given the perception of Trump being pro-crypto, and that’s what we’re seeing now,” said Le Shi, Hong Kong managing director at market-making firm Auros.

Shares of crypto-related companies also surged. Bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy and US cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase each jumped around 17 per cent. Cryptocurrency miners MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms climbed 22 per cent and 18 per cent, respectively.