The first media outlets confirm a clear victory for presidential candidate Donald Trump, pushing the bitcoin price to a new all-time high. An additional Republican majority in both chambers of Congress is expected to pave the way for a crypto-friendly 2025.
All major polls in the US suggest a close race between Trump and Harris. However, the Republican candidate had long been in the lead on Polymarket, the blockchain-based prediction market, with $3.5 billion in bets on the election. The latest results confirm Trump's decisive victory. He became the first Republican in 20 years to win not only the electoral vote but also the popular vote, with more than 50% of US voters satisfied with the outcome. Thanks to his crypto-friendly agenda, the price of bitcoin reacted positively to Trump's victory.
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A look at Trump's crypto agenda
The regulatory status of crypto assets has been a contentious issue in the United States for some time. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have been at odds, mainly over oversight. Many industry leaders see former MIT professor Gary Gensler, whom the Biden administration has nominated to chair the SEC in 2021, as a major instigator of this regulatory uncertainty. Other Democratic Party initiatives have also sparked frustration among crypto advocates. Some are calling it a coordinated attack on the industry - "Operation Choke Point 2.0".
Trump, according to his campaign promises, wants to change this environment. To roaring applause at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Trump announced that his first act would be to fire the current SEC chairman. Under his administration, crypto would flourish. Trump promised to support the bitcoin mining industry in the US, remove regulatory barriers and ban central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In his own words, cryptocurrencies will "go to the moon" and "skyrocket like never before".
American bitcoin reserve
The most important promise of the new president is the creation of a "strategic national bitcoin reserve". Through various seizures, the US authorities currently hold over $15 billion in bitcoin (BTC). These holdings have been steadily sold off. Just last year, the US government sold 28,000 bitcoins, worth $2 billion at today's prices. Going forward, Trump says that these bitcoin reserves will serve as a permanent national asset. The international implications of such a move would be monumental.
Of course, investors should not take a presidential candidate's every word at face value. Politicians tend to exaggerate their promises in order to win over voters. Nevertheless, Trump's victory is likely to create a much friendlier environment for bitcoin and alternative cryptocurrencies. The subsequent rise in the price of bitcoin underlines the market's expectations.
