The price of one bitcoin has lingered close to $100,000, rising more than 40 percent since the election of Trump, who has pledged to be the most pro-crypto president and make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.”
The expected departure of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, coupled with Trump’s Cabinet picks, is further fueling excitement among crypto investors, who see greener pastures ahead for the polarizing industry.
“The sense is the new administration, at the very least, is going to facilitate productive engagement with the regulators,” said Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, the general counsel for cryptography software company StarkWare.
“For the past four years, there was little to no productive engagement between crypto and the SEC," she said. "It was very combative."
The crypto community’s embrace of Trump’s victory was seen almost immediately in the market. Bitcoin spiked 8 percent on the day after the election, setting off a days-long rally before it reached a record high of more than $98,700 on Nov. 22.
Bitcoin started to slide back toward $90,000 earlier last week, along with a drop among other smaller crypto stocks.
Still, observers told The Hill they are confident the surge will last, with one analyst calling the market “structurally sound.”
The past four years were “regulation by enforcement,” Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of crypto platform Anchorage Digital, told The Hill, adding he hopes the next administration will bring “regulation by rulemaking.”
Many in the industry say they are looking for a more concrete regulatory framework, including new laws that address the unique aspects of this asset class, and believe new leadership will usher change.
“There are a number of things that just don’t fit in our current regime,” Bos said.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
