Bitcoin is close to a historic peak again: what's happening on the market

Bitcoin has once again approached a historic peak, helped by a series of events that emphasize the influence of the digital asset industry in the United States under the leadership of Donald Trump, Bloomberg reports, according to UNN.

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In particular, it was announced that Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. of the US president-elect is negotiating the purchase of Bakkt Holdings Inc.'s digital asset marketplace, which caused a surge in the shares of both companies.

Other developments included Nasdaq Inc.'s plan to float options on the $43 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust as early as Tuesday and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s move to spin off its digital asset platform, a sign of how cryptocurrency and its underlying blockchain technology are penetrating the financial system more deeply.

Bitcoin jumped as high as $92,606 on Monday in the United States before hitting $91,781 as of 6:16 a.m. Tuesday in London (8:16 a.m. Kyiv time), about $1681 below the record set last week. The largest digital asset is up 37% since Trump won the November 5 election on a platform that, among other things, made the United States the world's crypto capital.

"The crypto scene is back on the move," wrote Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group, adding that Trump Media's play with Bakkt is "another positive piece of upbeat news.

Trump has promised to create a supportive US regulatory framework for digital assets and to create a strategic bitcoin reserve. The timing of his promises and the feasibility of the bitcoin reserve idea remain uncertain.

Such questions are fueling debate about whether bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general can continue to grow. The highest concentration of open interest - or unexecuted contracts - in the options market comes as bitcoin rates are rising, reaching $100,000, according to data from the Deribit exchange.

Katie Stockton, a technical analyst at Fairlead Strategies LLC, said that some signals from chart patterns indicate that bitcoin could rise in the next few weeks to a target of around $98,100. Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG Australia Pty, expressed a preference for buying bitcoin corrections to $80,000.

The current surge of optimism about cryptocurrencies has dulled memories of the market crash in 2022, when fraud and other risky practices were revealed and platforms including Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange collapsed.

The controversial story was also on display on Monday, when a woman who called herself the "Crocodile of Wall Street" and "Razzleback" in a rap video was sentenced to 18 months in prison for helping her hacker husband launder cryptocurrency he stole from the Bitfinex exchange. The stolen bitcoins are now estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

Addendum

Trump used to be a cryptocurrency skeptic, but changed his tactics after digital asset companies spent significant funds during the election campaign to promote their interests, the publication points out. The US president-elect now has his own crypto projects. The probability of passing a comprehensive US cryptocurrency bill in 2025 has increased to about 70%, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Government Analyst Nathan Dean wrote in a note.