Bitcoin price tops $100,000 for first time as Trump win fuels crypto fever
Guardian
Bitcoin Tops $100K for First Time After Trump's SEC Pick
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Above: Paul Atkins, founder and chief executive officer of Patomak Global Partners LLC, speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in 2017. Image copyright: David Paul Morris/Contributor/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Facts
The value of a single Bitcoin rose beyond $100K for the first time in the cryptocurrency's history on Thursday before subsiding slightly.
The fresh rally in Bitcoin's price came hours after Pres.-elect Donald Trump named Paul Atkins, CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner — seen as a cryptocurrency advocate — as his pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
While Bitcoin wasn't the first online currency when it first appeared in 2008 — coming in the form of a white paper circulated by someone calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto, an individual or group of individuals whose real identity remains a mystery — the peer-to-peer electronic cash technology has since had a trajectory, unlike other cryptocurrencies.
The Spin
Narrative A
Trump's announcement Wednesday that he intended to nominate Atkins, an open advocate of cryptocurrencies, to head the SEC — alongside Trump's promises on the election campaign — further buoyed hopes that there would be more a favorable regulatory environment when it came to cryptocurrencies than the outgoing Democrat administration. That's why Bitcoin is having such a resurgence.
Narrative B
While Bitcoin may be the best-performing cryptocurrency there is, the truth is it's also been one of the most volatile investments. While it has had some spectacular rises in value, it has also had some spectacular crashes as well. It's not clear whether it makes a good investment as it was designed to be a payment method in the first place.
