Record-breaking bitcoin surges towards $90,000 on Trump boost

SINGAPORE/LONDON: Bitcoin rallied to the verge of $90,000 on Tuesday, riding a wave of euphoria since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president on expectations his administration will be crypto friendly.

The world's biggest cryptocurrency BTC= has become one of the most eye-catching movers in the week since the election and touched $89,982 - a gain of around 30% since Nov. 5. It was last down 1.4% at $86,730.

Bitcoin is surging along with Elon Musk's automaker Tesla TSLA.O, which is up nearly 40% since voting results rolled in, as investors figure Trump's friends and interests will do well while he is in office.

"The crypto enthusiasts think they have a like-minded incoming president," said Alvin Tan, head of Asia FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets.

"The thing about bitcoin at the end of the day is that there is no valuation anchor to it, it's hard to get a grip on fair value. So when sentiment is very positive, it does get carried away a lot more than other asset classes."

Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the "crypto capital of the planet" and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.

It is not clear how or when that could happen but the possibility drove a speculative surge in crypto mining and trading stocks.

"I think it increases the chances that other nation states buy bitcoin in a bid to front run the U.S.," said Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency asset manager Astronaut Capital.

"Additionally I think it would be a crazy catalyst for the U.S. listed bitcoin miners ... given possibilities of such entities getting nationalised."

Crypto miner Riot Platforms RIOT.N jumped nearly 17% on Wall Street on Monday. Fellow miners MARA Holdings MARA.O and CleanSpark CLSK.O leapt nearly 30%.

Software company and investor in bitcoin MicroStrategy MSTR.O announced it had spent about $2 billion buying bitcoin between Oct. 31 and Nov. 10. Shares rose 26% on Monday.

"Obviously (it's) a clear Trump trade as he is so supportive of the industry, and this can only mean more demand both for crypto stocks as well as the currencies themselves," Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at ATFX Global in Sydney, said of the bitcoin rally.

"The fact that bitcoin was trading near all-time highs when the election result came through meant that it had clean sky above."

The euphoria extended across the crypto landscape with smaller tokens such as ether ETH= and dogecoin DOGE=KRKN surging, although they dipped on Tuesday morning in Europe.

Crypto investors see an end to increased scrutiny under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler whom Trump has said he will replace. Trump also unveiled a new crypto business, World Liberty Financial, in September.

"What we're seeing isn't just a price milestone; it's a signal that the market is warming to the idea of bitcoin as a more stable, even politically favoured, asset," said Justin D'Anethan, head of Asia-Pacific business development at digital assets market maker Keyrock.