(Bloomberg) -- Cryptocurrency speculators kept Bitcoin in sight of the landmark $100,000 after digital-asset proponent Paul Atkins was selected by US President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The original digital asset erased earlier losses to trade about 1% higher at around $97,300 as of 2:58 p.m. Wednesday in New York, following a more than 40% advance since Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory. Trump has pledged to undo a Biden administration crackdown on digital assets.
“Whether it was Paul Atkins or someone else, as long as it isn’t the status quo,” said Ed Chin at Parataxis.
If confirmed, the former Republican SEC commissioner, is expected to focus on whittling away at regulations and levying lower penalties for violations. Recently, Atkins has been a strong proponent of digital assets and fintech companies.
On Wall Street, there are growing indications of more willingness to engage with the controversial market.
Trump’s Goal
“Atkins is about as great of an SEC chair for crypto as possible,” said Travis Kling at Ikigai. “He has strong libertarian leanings and an expressed mandate from Trump to be highly supportive of crypto, which I fully expect he will be.”
The president-elect has promised to make the US the global home of crypto and even backed the idea of a strategic national Bitcoin reserve, though there are doubts over whether the latter objective is feasible.
A Bitcoin reserve jars with Trump’s “ironclad” view of the US dollar as the world’s linchpin currency, TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote in a note.
“It is quite possible Trump will still tout a Bitcoin reserve on social media or mention it in a speech,” Seiberg said. “That is distinct from using the significant political capital that would be required to make it happen.”
Atkins would replace Gary Gensler, who launched a flurry of enforcement actions over alleged noncompliance and risky practices in the digital-asset sector, which suffered a rout in 2022 that cost investors huge sums.
Volatility in South Korea
The price of Bitcoin and other tokens, such as XRP and meme-crowd favorite Dogecoin, earlier diverged markedly in South Korea from prevailing global levels amid a bout of risk aversion due to political turmoil.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol imposed martial law late Tuesday due to a deepening rift with the opposition before rescinding the shock move hours later after a rebuke by parliament. Global markets were caught off guard, and Bitcoin’s price on local exchanges slid below $72,000 at one point on Tuesday.
The overall crypto market has posted a record-breaking surge since Trump became president-elect, rising by about $1.3 trillion, according to tracker CoinGecko. The rally has brought back a flavor of the mania for digital assets last seen during a pandemic-era bubble. Bitcoin on Nov. 22 came to within $300 of breaching $100,000 for the first time before falling back.
Crypto trading volume climbed to an all-time high in November, with more than $10 trillion of digital assets changing hands for the first time on centralized spot and derivatives exchanges. The combined volume doubled last month, according to data compiled by CCData.