Bitcoin breached the $75.000 mark for the first time today, boosted by the prospect of a regulatory relaxation favorable to digital currencies if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election.
After surpassing its last all-time high in March ($73.797,98), the first digital currency by market capitalization rose to $75.005 at 03:08 GMT today, an increase of around eight percent.
Ether - the second major digital currency, was bought for $2.585, which is an increase of six percent.
The price of bitcoin jumped in line with the dollar in markets tied to the first results of the US presidential election, including states won by Donald Trump, and his lead over Kamala Harris is seen as a foreshadowing of the final outcome of the election.
"Markets are starting to bet on the return of Trump. He won by a larger margin than expected in Florida, a very populous state, which reinforces expectations of Republican results in other states," underlined Hugo Kuboi, strategist at Daiwa Securities. quoted by Bloomberg.
During the campaign, the former president pledged to make the United States "the bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world," by imposing an extremely relaxed regulatory framework.
"The price of bitcoin is closely tracking Trump's position in the polls because for investors his victory would lead to an increase in demand for the digital currency," observed Ras Mold, an analyst at AJ Bell before the election.
Casting himself as a champion of cryptocurrencies, Trump has taken a different stance from the Biden administration, which is seen as favoring strict regulation of the sector, even as Democrat Kamala Harris has tried to woo cryptocurrency holders as well.
"A (Trump) return to power would likely emphasize deregulation, tax incentives and economic policies favorable to alternative investments, such as bitcoin," said deVere's Nigel Green.
That analyst also notes that the previous Republican term "was marked by significant corporate tax cuts, which injected additional liquidity into the market, thereby encouraging investment in high-growth assets."
At the start of this year, the price of bitcoin was driven by anticipation of a "halving" - a technical event that reduces the supply of new bitcoins roughly every four years.
The digital currency owes its rise to the debut of a new investment product on the US market, an index fund (ETF) indexed to bitcoin, which allows investors to benefit from fluctuations in the price of this cryptocurrency without directly owning it.
Bonus video:
