Bitcoin hit another all-time high on Monday morning, blasting past $82,300, as markets continue to rally following the US elections — and experts say it’s just the beginning.
The $1.6 trillion cryptocurrency hasn’t looked back since first breaking its March high after Donald Trump won the presidential election.
“Despite the Trump Pump we’ve already experienced post election, we are still very early in this bull cycle,” David Brickell, head of international distribution at FRNT Financial, and former forex trader Chris Mills, wrote in their latest newsletter.
So why are markets so bullish, and how high do they expect Bitcoin to go?
Red sweep
Trump’s win and Republicans bagging a majority in the Senate and edging towards a House majority have galvanised crypto markets.
A red sweep will make it much easier for any pro-crypto legislation to get passed, analysts say.
That includes repealing guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission that blocked banks from custody of cryptocurrencies. It may also clear the way for stablecoin regulations, one of the primary ways traders buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
This all comes after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by another quarter point last week — another bullish signal for risky assets.
The Fed is expected to slash interest rates again at its December 18 meeting. There’s a 68.5% chance it will cut rates by another 0.25%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
While Trump’s policy to raise tariffs may give the central bank pause for further cuts, Brickell and Mills expect the Fed and its international peers to keep slashing those rates and, inadvertently, pump risk-on assets like cryptocurrencies.
Where’s Bitcoin’s next top?
How high Bitcoin will go depends on who you ask.
British investment bank Standard Chartered says Bitcoin will reach $125,000 by the end of the year and a whopping $200,000 by the end of next year.
“We’ve gone from [President Joe] Biden who was proactively negative about the industry, to Trump, who is proactively positive,” Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research at Standard Chartered, said.
Analysts at Bernstein also predicted that Bitcoin would rise to $90,000 this year and to $200,000 after a Trump win.
Options data paint a rosy picture, too. Bets on Bitcoin hitting $90,000 by the end of November are already piling up, according to options data from Deribit.
Bearish bets that rally would slow were liquidated to the tune of $85 million over the last day, according to data from CoinGlass.
Liam Kelly is DL News Berlin-based DeFi Correspondent. Got a tip? Email at liam@dlnews.com.
