Over the last eighteen months, bitcoin has skyrocketed in value to all-time highs. In fact, it’s all the way up to $120290, hitting a new cryptocurrency market cap milestone. Much of this increase is due to rising public concern over former President Donald Trump’s role in cryptocurrency. Most justifiably, observers worry that his extensive business dealings will lead to a clear conflict of interest. The recent price increase has shed new light on what and how Trump’s deep financial ties to the developing crypto industry will impact the situation.
Fast forward to July 27, 2024, when Trump made his debut on the campaign trail, headlining the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee. He gleefully underscored his exuberance for the burgeoning crypto-space. His support for World Liberty Financial, a crypto company that launched the USD1 stablecoin in March, has raised eyebrows. The firm recently closed on a record $2 billion capital raise for the crypto exchange Binance. This money is from the Abu Dhabi-based investment company Mubadala. Environmental advocates are concerned that Trump’s company will benefit from this deal. This creates an appearance, if not the reality, of a conflict of interest, particularly as he failed to release valid financial disclosures while serving as president.
After all, Bitcoin’s value is skyrocketing at the moment! A big driver of this increase is known, mainly the continued growth of institutional adoption following the U.S. approving Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) last year. According to Bloomberg, investors have been very enthusiastic, investing over a billion dollars into Bitcoin ETFs for two straight days last week. Consequently, the total asset value of Bitcoin ETFs skyrocketed to the all-time high of over $158 billion. Nikhil Bhatia, a cryptocurrency analyst, remarked on this trend, stating:
“Since the U.S. approval of bitcoin ETFs, we’ve seen institutional adoption of bitcoin.” – Nikhil Bhatia
Bitcoin’s price has skyrocketed almost 80% since the presidential election, signalling incredible bullish mood among crypto investors. Aside from Bitcoin’s new high, the entire crypto landscape has been experiencing upward momentum. Solana was up 2%, and Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up 1% Monday.
Some financial pundits and analysts have raised doubts about the ability of Bitcoin’s recent price moves to hold. Bryan Routledge, an economist specializing in cryptocurrencies, commented on the volatility and unpredictability of Bitcoin prices:
“Bitcoin prices have always been puzzling in a sense.” – Bryan Routledge
When asked about the timing of the current surge, he added:
“Why now? I don’t know what the new information is.” – Bryan Routledge
Alongside all of these market movements, we have seen a strong regulatory push towards creating a more orderly structure for the cryptocurrency industry. The GENIUS Act would be a groundbreaking effort to create a regulatory framework for America’s growing crypto market. It adds important safeguards to protect consumers—safeguards that the toxic rule conveniently omits. This legislative pipedream demonstrates that there is widespread public support for regulation. It is a new era of rapid changes and complexities in the financial environment.
