Bitcoin looked to rack up its seventh straight day of gains on Monday as attention remained fixed on regulatory outlook under incoming president Donald Trump.
A 1% climb took bitcoin to US$99,344 and within touching distance of the US$100,000 mark, first reached in December before a year-end slump.
The upturn mirrored a wider positive performance across the cryptocurrency market on Monday, with ethereum and ripple also ticking up by 1.1% and 0.5% respectively.
Profit-taking most recently has weighed on the market after a rally in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory last November.
Trump had pledged to make the US the “crypto center of the world” during his campaigning, including by creating a bitcoin reserve.
Speculation since has been on when the stockpile could be created as Trump’s January 20 inauguration draws closer.
Analyst Luke Gromen noted Trump may be weary about holding off from officially unveiling the reserve early on, given an expected surge in prices on the news.
“From an optics and narrative perspective, it makes more sense to not announce it on day one,” he said.
“Continue to talk positively about it, buy it in the background and manage the chart as you talk positively about it [...] then after the fact say, ‘hey, by the way, I have established the bitcoin reserve,’ because then the market’s going to run away from you versus doing it on day one.”