Bitcoin is on track for a seventh consecutive weekly gain, as growing optimism for a crypto-friendly Trump administration fuels what what would be the longest winning streak in over three years.
The last time Bitcoin had a weekly streak this long was in September 2021, during what later turned out to be bubble that burst in the next year. The largest cryptocurrency peaked at about US$69,000 ($93,032) in November 2021 before tumbling to just over US$15,000 a year later amid a series of industry scandals and bankruptcies. Bitcoin is up around 50% since Trump won the presidential vote in November.
“Trump’s embrace of crypto has diminished the reputational and regulatory risk that crypto carried with it,” said Strahinja Savic, head of data and analytics at FRNT Financial. “Mainstay US financial institutions are being given the green light to participate in this market and the market is beginning to price this new dynamic.”
US President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of crypto supporters to serve in his next administration has also helped markets. Bitcoin surpassed US$100,000 on Dec 5 for the first time after Trump nominated Paul Atkins for chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It reached a record high of US$103,800 that day.
The largest cryptocurrency by market value was about 1.8% higher to US$101,548 on Friday, and up a similar amount on the week. Bitcoin trades around the close. Bloomberg measures the weekly changes Sunday to Sunday.
See also: Trump plans to designate cryptocurrency as a national priority
Bitcoin has also seen gains from inflows to Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. More investors have been looking to get exposure to Bitcoin, Peter Chung, head of research at Presto Research wrote in a note to clients.
“Even for investors facing legal or social constraints on directly holding BTC, Bitcoin finds a way via ETFs or equities/bonds issued by MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Coinbase,” Chung wrote.
