Bitcoin surged to a record of more than $75,000, as cryptocurrency investors expressed optimism about former President Donald J. Trump’s prospects after early election results came in on Tuesday.
The price broke the record of roughly $73,000 that Bitcoin set in March, when new investment products linked to the digital currency started trading on Wall Street. This time, the surge was driven by the election. While results from the crucial swing states have not been called, the odds of a Trump victory rose to nearly 90 percent on an influential crypto-powered betting website that digital currency investors track closely.
Many crypto proponents believe that a Trump victory would be good for the industry. For the last two years, the Biden administration has conducted an aggressive crackdown to curb securities violations by crypto companies, forcing some of those firms offshore and raising questions about the industry’s long-term future in the United States.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump has promised to end the regulatory push and establish the United States as the “crypto capital of the planet.” Before the election, analysts predicted that a Trump victory could send Bitcoin to $80,000 or $90,000.
Bitcoin has long been known for its volatility. Its price crashed in 2022 after a series of industry scandals culminated in the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.
But the price surged this year when the U.S. government allowed a new investment vehicle tied to Bitcoin — a type of exchange traded fund — to begin trading on Wall Street. The products drew billions of dollars of investment, sending Bitcoin soaring.
Soon the crypto industry’s attention turned to the election.
The industry has spent tens of millions of dollars to influence dozens of key congressional races across the country, in one of the most aggressive corporate spending sprees in modern political history. A group of affiliated super PACs, financed by the crypto firms Coinbase and Ripple, raised more than $170 million to elect pro-crypto politicians to Congress.
Those super PACs did not participate in the presidential race. But high-profile executives, including Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the founders of the Gemini crypto exchange, donated large sums to support Mr. Trump’s campaign.
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