Bitcoin yesterday climbed to a fresh record as the US prepared to inaugurate US President Donald Trump to his second presidential term, following a weekend during which his own digital token rattled crypto markets.
The original digital asset gained as much as 5.5 percent to US$109,241 yesterday. The rally came after Trump and his wife, Melania, unveiled memecoins, with Trump’s reaching a market capitalization of more than US$15 billion on Sunday before declining sharply.
Bitcoin and other major tokens such as ether and xrp rose rapidly yesterday morning in London, with traders counting down the hours until Trump once again assumed control of the White House.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Bloomberg News previously reported that he is considering an executive order designating the asset class a “national priority.”
The new Trump tokens initially blindsided crypto markets by diverting investment flows from other tokens, and drew sharp criticism even from some industry executives. Yet investors eventually embraced the notion that Trump’s move would give him further incentive to embrace crypto-friendly policies.
The tokens debuted by Trump and his team have further accelerated bitcoin’s momentum as retail traders look for his administration to “prioritize and reaffirm his commitment to the crypto industry,” cryptocurrency exchange HashKey Global managing director Ben El-Baz said.
Memecoins are a kind of cryptocurrency with questionable intrinsic value and high volatility that rely on social media tailwinds to drive up their price.
An 80 percent share of the Trump token is owned by a Trump Organization affiliate called CIC Digital LLC, and a related entity called Fight Fight Fight LLC — whose name echoes the words Trump mouthed after a bullet grazed his ear during the campaign trail.
Their holdings are to be unlocked over a three-year period.
Major exchanges such as Coinbase Global Inc and Binance Holdings Ltd at the weekend said that they intend to list the token on their platforms. Robinhood Markets Inc yesterday announced on social media that it too had listed the token.
Jonathan Yark, senior quantitative trader at crypto market maker Acheron Trading, said the memecoin “confirmed that digital assets and, most importantly, bitcoin will have the backing of the US which presents significant opportunity.”
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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