The
early
November
election
of
crypto-friendly
Donald
Trump
restarted
what
had
been
a
stalled
rally
through
much
of
2024.
Updated
Dec
5,
2024,
2:50 a.m.
UTCPublished
Dec
5,
2024,
2:46 a.m.
UTC
tops
$100K
for
first
time
(CoinDesk)
What
to
know:
-
The
price
of
bitcoin
has
risen
above
$100,000
for
the
first
time. -
The
highly
successful
introduction
of
U.S.-based
spot
ETFs
combined
with
the
election
of
Donald
Trump
to
spearhead
the
rally. -
Corporate
adoption
also
played
a
role,
with
a
growing
number
of
companies
following
MicroStrategy’s
lead
in
accumulating
bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s
price
has
surged
past
the
$100,000
mark
for
the
first
time
in
its
history,
fueled
by
institutional
demand,
corporate
accumulation
and
heightened
expectations
of
crypto-friendly
policies
under
Donald
Trump’s
presidency.
continues
below
Now
ahead
about
130%
year-to-date,
bitcoin’s
market
capitalization
has
risen
to
just
shy
of
$2
trillion
only
15
years
after
coming
into
existence.
For
reference,
Nvidia
and
Apple
sport
market
caps
of
about
$3.5
trillion,
Microsoft
$3
trillion,
and
Google
and
Amazon
$2.2
trillion.
The
market
capitalization
of
all
the
gold
in
the
world
is
roughly
$17.7
trillion.
At
the
forefront
of
this
rally
was
the
early-2024
launch
of
spot-based
bitcoin
exchange-traded
funds
(ETF)
by
asset
management
giants
including
BlackRock
and
Fidelity.
These
products
have
been
a
resounding
success,
securing
assets
under
management
of
around
$30
billion
in
less
than
one
year’s
time.
Despite
the
success
of
the
ETFs,
the
move
higher
in
bitcoin
seemingly
stalled
throughout
a
large
chunk
of
this
year,
at
least
in
part
thanks
to
regulatory
uncertainty
surrounding
the
U.S.
presidential
election.
The
early
November
victory
of
crypto-friendly
Donald
Trump,
though,
spurred
new
legs
for
the
rally,
with
bitcoin
quickly
taking
out
its
March
high
above
$73,500,
then
in
fast
time
moving
past
$80,000,
then
$90,000,
and
finally
$100,000
just
minutes
ago.
Read
more:
Crypto
Foe
and
SEC
Chair
Gary
Gensler
Will
Quit
When
Trump
Takes
Office
Corporate
adoption
Another
large
part
of
the
bull
story
is
growing
corporate
adoption,
led
by
MicroStrategy
(MSTR)
and
its
Executive
Chairman
Michael
Saylor.
The
company
—
which
began
its
bitcoin
purchases
in
August
2020
—
has
continued
to
raise
billions
of
dollars
to
deploy
into
bitcoin,
taking
its
holdings
to
386,700
tokens
which
are
now
worth
more
than
$38
billion.
Saylor
and
team
have
inspired
other
publicly
traded
companies,
U.S.-listed
Semler
Scientific
and
Japan-listed
Metaplanet
among
them,
to
pursue
similar
strategies.
Even
tech
giant
Microsoft
has
a
proposal
before
its
board
as
to
whether
it
should
pursue
a
bitcoin
treasury
strategy.
Krisztian
Sandor
Krisztian
Sandor
recently
graduated
from
NYU’s
business
and
economic
reporter
program
as
a
Fulbright
fellow
and
worked
with
Reuters
and
Forbes
previously.
Originally
from
Budapest,
Hungary,
he
is
now
based
in
New
York.
He
holds
BTC
and
ETH.
Stephen
Alpher
Stephen
is
CoinDesk’s
managing
editor
for
Markets.
He
previously
served
as
managing
editor
at
Seeking
Alpha.
A
native
of
suburban
Washington,
D.C.,
Stephen
went
to
the
University
of
Pennsylvania’s
Wharton
School,
majoring
in
finance.
He
holds
BTC
above
CoinDesk’s
disclosure
threshold
of
$1,000.
