‘Virtual Asset President’ elected… Bitcoin pillar of fire – Maeil Business Newspaper

Coinbase (COIN), the largest virtual asset exchange in the United States, ended trading at $254.31 on the 6th (local time), up 31.11% from the previous day. It is the highest price in 107 days since July 23rd.

On this day, MicroStrategy (MSTR), a representative Bitcoin theme stock, also rose 13.17%. MicroStrategy owns 252,220 bitcoins. It is an information technology (IT) company that holds the largest number of bitcoins among single companies, excluding exchange traded funds (ETFs). Bitcoin mining stocks Marathon Digital Holdings and CleanSpark also rose 18.97% and 23.01%, respectively.

This is because expectations have grown that virtual asset market regulations will be greatly relaxed with Trump’s election. Former President Trump declared at the ‘Bitcoin 2024 Conference’ in July that he would make the United States the capital of virtual assets and dismiss the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, known as the ‘virtual asset grim reaper’. If Trump fires Chairman Gensler and blocks the SEC’s regulation of virtual assets, it will be great news for the coin industry, including Coinbase.

What the industry is paying the most attention to is the abolition of the ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’ regulations promised by Trump. This regulation is an administrative sanction that prohibits banks from providing virtual asset services and issuing banking licenses to virtual asset companies. In effect, it blocks the fund inflow path into the virtual asset market.

Bitcoin also continued its rapid rise. Bitcoin soared 8.94% on the 6th. In particular, at one point on this day, it rose to $76,400, breaking the all-time high. Bitcoin’s market capitalization rose to $1.49 trillion due to this surge, ranking 9th in the global asset market capitalization ranking.

Altcoins, coins other than Bitcoin, also rose significantly. Ethereum rose 12.36%, Solana rose 11.99%, and Ripple rose 5.41%.

Dogecoin received particular attention. In a public speech in early September, Trump said Elon Musk had agreed to take charge of the department, saying, “I will create a Department of Government Effectiveness that will make bold reform recommendations.” The ‘Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)’ has the same name as Dogecoin, which Musk floated. Dogecoin soared 15.57% the previous day.

Investors are anticipating whether the surge in altcoins will ignite the rise of altcoins. This is because Bitcoin’s share of the total virtual asset market market capitalization rose to 60.9% this morning and then fell slightly. It has been about 44 months since March 2021 that the market share exceeded 60%. Typically, when Bitcoin’s market share increases rapidly, investment funds are diverted to altcoins.

As Bitcoin rose significantly, the transaction volume on Upbit, a domestic exchange, also increased significantly. According to Coin Gecko, a coin statistics site, Upbit, whose daily trading volume has remained at the 2 trillion won level since March of this year, exceeded 8 trillion won in trading volume on the 6th. Accordingly, Dunamu and Bithumb Korea, the operators of the unlisted stock Upbit, also rose 7.00% and 3.46%, respectively, compared to the previous day.

[최근도 기자 / 한상헌 기자]