Bitcoin hits $80k for first time after surging on Trump win

The world’s biggest crypto currency was up by over 5 per cent on Sunday, reaching almost $81,000 at one time

Bitcoin hit $80,000 for the first time after surging on the back of Donald Trump's election win earlier this week.

The world’s biggest crypto currency was up by over 5 per cent on Sunday, reaching almost $81,000 at one time.

Trump had once been a crypto currency skeptic, previously describing the digital assets as "highly volatile and based on thin air."

But he became an outspoken supporter of crypto during his 2024 presidential campaign, even branding himself the "crypto president."

And it seems to have paid off for the president-elect, who was able to unlock millions in campaign funding from the crypto community ahead of his victory.

Many in the industry are now hopeful Trump will usher in a new crypto era, sweeping aside regulatory restrictions and giving bitcoin a role in the economy.

Some are particularly hopeful for a bitcoin reserve.

Dennis Porter, the Chief Executive Officer of the Satoshi Action Fund, a pro-bitcoin advocacy organization, wrote on X that "the anti-Bitcoin movement died" the night of the election.

The USA will be the most pro-Bitcoin nation in the world, he wrote.

We will have a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve. We will enshrine a national law to defend Bitcoin Rights, he further said.

It marks a sharp change from the Biden administration, which has had somewhat icy relations with the crypto community.

Republicans targeted that as campaigning ramped up in the summer, writing on the party platform: Republicans will end Democrats' unlawful and unAmerican Crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency.