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- > Trump wins: What’s next for crypto?
- > Spot Bitcoin ETFs experience record-breaking inflows
- > Senator Lummis confirms Bitcoin reserve following Trump’s re-election
- > Altcoins surge: SOL, DOGE, SUI lead the top twenty
Trump wins: What’s next for crypto?
The re-election of Donald Trump has sparked optimism through the crypto community as the industry strives for regulatory clarity.
It seems like every couple of months, the community reverts to being that child on Christmas Eve, impatiently waiting for Santa to deliver a sack of goodies.
First, we had the spot Bitcoin ETF approval from the SEC. Then, it was the Bitcoin halving. And now, perhaps the biggest event of all is the outcome of the US presidential election.
While the Trump victory will reverberate and polarise throughout the world, there’s one community that’s rejoicing at the news – crypto.
Trump’s road to a runaway triumph involved a pre-election campaign focused on financial reform and finally providing regulatory clarity to cryptocurrency.
The market reacted in droves, with the news of Trump’s win swiftly pushing Bitcoin to a new all-time high of over US $115,000 AUD (approx $75,000 USD).
The biggest catalyst for the outpouring of positive sentiment is the sweeping changes coming to the US financial regulatory body, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Chaired by Gary Gensler, the SEC has spent much of the past four years enacting a “regulation by enforcement” strategy, one which was seen as stifling innovation from crypto exchanges, startups and other blockchain projects.
Although Trump himself does not have the power to personally remove Gensler, it is typical for positions of leadership to change when a new Government is elected.
The introduction of a pro-crypto Congress, SEC and President will hopefully lead to large-scale legislative changes that foster, rather than restrict, the Web3 industry.
It might take weeks, if not months, for the market to settle down from the sugar rush of the “Bitcoin president” being elected – so short-term volatility might be on the cards.
Nevertheless, the optimism among the crypto community is palpable. Now, we must wait and see whether the new US president follows through on his promises.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs experience record-breaking inflows
BlackRock’s fund, IBIT, saw a whopping US $1b in trading volume within 20 minutes of markets opening.
It didn’t take long for Donald Trump’s victory to resonate with institutional investors.
While many were busy celebrating – or commiserating – the election results, financial institutions quickly got to work shoring up their Bitcoin portfolios.
In just a few hours following Trump being re-elected, US Spot ETFs hurtled toward record-breaking inflows.
Coming as no surprise to anybody, the highest-volume ETF was BlackRock’s IBIT – with the fund now owning close to double the assets under management of its closest competitor.
According to Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas, IBIT experienced a whopping US $1b in trading volume within 20 minutes of market opening. This level of cash flow is typical of an entire day of trading, for context.
IBIT wasn’t the only ETF to go bananas, with most other funds seeing 2x their normal trading volumes.
When the dust settled, US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded their highest level of money flow since the first few frenzied weeks of trading.
IBIT was the big winner (of course), raking in US $4.1b in trading volume – its best day ever.
Think of all the trading fees Larry Fink is getting his hands on…
Senator Lummis confirms Bitcoin reserve following Trump’s re-election
Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis initially floated the idea of a US Strategic Reserve comprising upwards of 1 million Bitcoins.
Okay, let’s be honest here.
Politicians make a lot of promises during their campaign trail, and sometimes they don’t quite come to fruition.
Although the public perception of dishonesty is worse than the reality – some University studies show over 75% of pre-election promises are fulfilled – there’s generally a healthy level of skepticism around the topic.
Donald Trump’s political resurrection hinged upon several important claims, one of which was the introduction of a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
But, thanks to Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, it appears this promise won’t just dwindle into the ether.
The representative has been a long-time champion of a Bitcoin Federal Reserve, initially proposing the idea in July via her bill: Boosting Innovation Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide Act 2024.
(Yes, the initials do spell Bitcoin)
In the Act, Senator Lummis proposes approximately 1 million Bitcoins are purchased and stored by the US Government – valuing the Reserve at over 70 billion USD.
The premise of Bitcoin’s Strategic Reserve would be to pay off at least half of the United State’s national debt (approx. USD $36 trillion) by 2045. The investment fund could also serve as diversification for the Government’s portfolio against inflationary events like we saw post-Covid.
Analysts believe it may take years before a Reserve is formed, as any strategic asset investments must be first passed by Congress.
However, one thing’s for sure – whether she succeeds in building a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve or not, Senator Cynthia Lummis won’t die wondering.
Altcoins surge: SOL, DOGE, SUI lead the top twenty
The altcoin market has broken out of a lengthy slumber to post double-digit gains across the board, with memecoins looking particularly bullish.
Altcoins in 2024 have been the literal embodiment of Katy Perry’s 2008 hit “Hot N Cold.” For the best part of the year, they’ve been, well, hot and cold.
The past quarter has been a definitive “cold” stretch for the non-BTC crypto market, with most Layer 1 ecosystems and Layer 2 projects struggling to gain traction outside of short-term rallies.
However, it appears that altcoin season may finally be on the horizon following the election of Donald Trump as US President and the bullish sentiment that’s followed.
Memecoins were one of the few altcoin sub-sectors to excel over the last few months, and the market has taken that energy and pushed it parabolic on the election result.
Sorting through the top 100 coins by market cap, Dogecoin sits in the top five for weekly gains following a 15% price increase. Meanwhile, in the shorter term, Bonk (+15%), Pepe (+14%) and dogwifhat (+12%) have all excelled in the past 24 hours.
The rally finally extended to Layer 1 altcoins too, with SUI blasting to a new all-time high of US $2.30 on the back of a partnership with Google Cloud and 12% weekly gains.
Solana, not to be left out of the party, also experienced explosive growth overnight, posting 24-hour returns of nearly 10%. This pushed it back into the top four cryptocurrencies by market cap, reclaiming the position from Binance Coin (BNB).
Ben Knight
