The aftershocks of Donald Trump’s reelection as President on Nov. 5 are still being felt all over the country and world. But one industry is being especially affected — the cryptocurrency trade. Bitcoin is currently experiencing the Donald Trump effect.
While cryptocurrencies have been around for a while, they have largely fell off in the past few years alongside NFTs, with crypto facing criticisms as a volatile and at times predatory form of financial speculation. However, following the election, Bitcoin hasn’t just revived in relevance: it’s broken a new record.
How did Donald Trump’s election impact Bitcoin?
According to the BBC, the price of Bitcoin has reached $80,000 for the first time ever. Comparatively, its price was $37,000 twelve months ago, The Guardian reports.
The outlet also reports that cryptocurrency like dogecoin and ethereum have seen an increase in value. Moreover, within 24 hours of Trump’s election, more than 1,000 memecoins related to the election had been created.
However, as pointed out by Coindesk, memecoins are volatile in nature. The majority of them are likely to be scams. But nonetheless, they demonstrate the strong link between Trump and cryptocurrency hopes.
Back in September, Trump said he wanted to make America “the crypto capital of the world.” If these figures are anything to go by, he might just make that a reality, for better or worse (and let’s be honest, it’s probably for worse).
