Bitcoin claims the historic $100,000 milestone, President-elect Donald Trump picks former SEC commissioner Paul Atkins to replace Gary Gensler as agency chair, and more in today’s edition of the weekly recap.

Bitcoin breaches $100,000

  • Trump congratulated the crypto community when Bitcoin (BTC) hit the historic $100,000 milestone on Dec. 5, soaring to a new all-time high above $103,000. At last check Sunday, the top cryptocurrency was trading at around $99,554.

Source: CoinGecko

  • Meanwhile, defunct exchange Mt. Gox moved 24,000 BTC, triggering selloff fears.

Trump’s SEC pick and crypto czar

  • On Truth Social, Trump announced his decision to nominate Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, to lead the SEC as chairman. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CLO Stuart Alderoty supported Atkins’ candidacy alongside the rest of the crypto community.

  • Shortly after, Trump’s team confirmed that venture capitalist David Sacks would lead the administration’s newly created White House artificial intelligence and crypto department.

You might also like: Why Paul Atkins, Trump’s SEC chair pick, gives crypto a reason to hope again

XRP finally breaches $2

  • XRP (XRP), which began December at $1.95, quickly breached the $2 milestone on Dec. 1 for the first time in seven years. XRP soared to a peak of $2.9 before retracing.

  • Amid the uptrend, XRP’s market cap surpassed Tether (USDT) and Solana (SOL), as the altcoin secured the third spot among the largest crypto assets. 

  • As XRP cemented its position in the limelight, leading asset manager WisdomTree filed to launch an XRP ETF with the U.S. SEC, becoming the fourth firm to submit such filing. 

Source: CoinGecko Solana ETFs hit roadblock

  • Grayscale also filed with the SEC, seeking to launch a Solana ETF. The firm aims to convert its Grayscale Solana Trust, launched in 2021, to an ETF. But the filings reportedly face delays until after Trump takes office.

Tax regulations

  • South Korea agreed to postpone a proposal to enact a 20% tax policy on crypto investments. As a result of the decision, the proposal will take effect in 2027. 

  • Reports confirmed that French lawmakers are mulling including tax on unrealized crypto gains. Meanwhile, Indian authorities are investigating Binance and 16 other entities for possibly evading tax payments.

  • The Czech Republic passed a law to relax its capital gains tax policy on Bitcoin held by investors for more than three years.

Cardano and WallStreetbets hacked on X

  • The X accounts of both Wallstreetbets and Cardano were hacked.

  • Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of X (formerly Twitter), there has been growing concern about an increase in security breaches. High-profile incidents include the compromise of the SEC’s official X account earlier this year.

Read more: Emerging markets, AI, and crypto: insights from Ryze Labs’ Matthew Graham