Bitcoin sets a fresh all-time high as post-election rally continues

(MENAFN- Golin Mena) UAE, Dubai, 19 November 2024 - Bitcoin has set a fresh all-time high of $93,480 last Wednesday as the post-US presidential election momentum continues to spur crypto markets.

With the rising bitcoin price, the total crypto market capitalisation also set a new all-time high of $3.05 trillion, surpassing that seen at the peak of the previous bull market in 2021.

Crypto-related stocks also continued their rally. Microstrategy, arguably the biggest bitcoin proxy, posted a new all-time high of $388, overtaking its previous all-time high of $333 that was seen 24 years ago at the height of the dot-com bubble.

Furthermore the company announced purchases of 27,200 bitcoin last week and 51,780 bitcoin yesterday, taking its total holdings to 331,200 bitcoin, approximately $29.8 billion at current market prices.

With the euphoria in crypto markets since the election outcome two weeks ago, the Crypto Fear and Greed index has moved to its highest levels since the spot bitcoin ETFs were launched earlier this year, when the market ‘topped-out’ at the then all-time high of $73,800.

Technical charting indicators are also showing the bitcoin price as overbought, so it’s possible we could see the rally pause this week and the price consolidate momentarily, or the price retrace in the short-term before another move higher.

LAST WEEK’S MOVERS

Dogecoin has been one of the best performing cryptoassets recently following the announcement that Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed ‘Dogefather’, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (abbreviated as D.O.G.E) under the incoming Trump administration.

Other memecoins such as pepecoin and bonk have also seen significant gains.

Solana has appreciated significantly in recent days outperforming major cryptoassets like bitcoin and ethereum given its status as the premier blockchain for new memecoins.

Solana is currently trading at $245, only 6% away from its $260 all-time high.

EYE-CATCHING STORIES

Pennsylvania introduces bill to use $7 billion state fund for bitcoin strategic reserve

Led by Representative Mike Cabell, Pennsylvania lawmakers last week introduced a bill that would allow the state to invest into bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.

If passed, the Pennsylvania Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act would allow up to 10% of its $7 billion ‘rainy day’ state funds to be invested into bitcoin as a way to help combat inflation and diversify its investments.

The new bitcoin reserve bill for Pennsylvania comes as pro-crypto Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis says she's hoping to push through her own national-level bitcoin reserve bill during the first 100 days of Trump's presidency.

If the bill is passed in Pennsylvania, we could see further states as well as the federal government potentially introduce their own bitcoin strategic reserves, as the US moves into a ‘pro-crypto’ era for the first time.

BlackRock BUIDL fund launches across multiple blockchains

BlackRock announced last week that it is expanding its tokenised fund BUIDL (BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund), which was initially introduced on Ethereum in March 2024, to further blockchains through the launch of a new share class on Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism’s OP Mainnet, and Polygon.

BUIDL, which is tokenized by Securitize, has grown to become the largest fund in the tokenised government securities marketplace with $517million in assets under management, 22% of the $2.3 billion market.

This expansion offers optionality and increased access for investors, decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) and other digital asset-native firms by allowing developers to build on the BlackRock fund in their preferred ecosystem, the press release went on to say.

UK Chancellor reveals plans for Digital Gilt pilot

Delivering her first Mansion House speech last week, new Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced that the new UK government is launching a pilot to deliver a Digital Gilt Instrument, which is referred to as DIGIT and similar to a bond, using distributed ledger technology.

The pilot builds upon the groundwork of the previous government and forms part of the new government’s broader Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy.

The Labour party took over from the previous government in July, but so far has said very little about plans for the UK crypto industry. Reeves’ speech however gives some confidence to companies that the UK still intends to be innovative in the financial services sector with the new government at the helm.

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