Bitcoin has come closer than ever to hitting the $100,000 milestone as the world’s largest cryptocurrency’s post-election rally shows no sign of letting up.
One bitcoin was swapping for a record high of $97,850 earlier this morning, before creeping back below $97,500 at the time of writing.
Bitcoin’s year-to-date performance – Source: tradingview.com
The crypto markets have been red hot since president-elect Donald Trump swept to victory in the presidential elections.
Trump made numerous pro-crypto pledges during his campaign, including a lighter touch to regulation and pro-crypto policymaker appointments.
Bitcoin is now up nearly 130% year to date, encouraged not just but the election results but a litany of other tailwinds.
In January, the historically hawkish Securities and Exchange Commission approved the trading of spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds, ushering in a groundswell of institutional adoption of the cryptocurrency.
ETF data shows that over $39 billion in bitcoin is now held in the ETF market.
The Bitcoin Halving in April added another positive catalyst to the market.
Bitcoin won further institutional support this week after BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and owner of the largest bitcoin ETF, officially launched options trading on its iShare Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT).
According to Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart, nearly $1.9 billion in options trading was tallied on the first day of trading, the overwhelming majority of which were calls.
The global cryptocurrency market, including bitcoin and all altcoins, is currently estimated at around $3.18 trillion.
Bitcoin itself has a market cap of $1.93 trillion.