Bitcoin bounces back

Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 (R1.82 million) threshold for the first time since February, fueled by expectations for an easing of global trade tensions.

The largest digital asset climbed as much as 4.9% to $101,519 (R1.84 million) on Thursday, as most other major tokens climbed even higher.

Bitcoin rose to a record of around $109,000 (R1.98 million) on 20 January, the day US President Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second time.

It later slumped as much as 30% after Trump’s embrace of tariffs spurred turmoil in global financial markets. 

“It just speaks to the large amount of demand for digital assets in the industry, and especially Bitcoin,” said Cosmo Jiang of Pantera Capital. “There are just more and more buyers out there.

We are also seeing the benefit of digital assets being digital can’t be tariffed. They are also a non-sovereign store of value. In times of economic stress, digital assets benefits.”

Trump announced an agreement with the UK on Thursday, saying full details of the pact would still be negotiated over the coming weeks.

But under the agreement, the UK would fast-track American goods through their customs process and reduce barriers on agricultural, chemical, energy and industrial exports.

The announcement is the first Trump made since imposing high tariffs on dozens of US trading partners.

Trump has become an advocate of digital assets during his second term, paving the way for the crypto industry by rolling back legal actions against many companies in the sector, establishing a Bitcoin reserve, easing regulation and even getting into the business.

Trump family-related entities launched the decentralised finance platform World Liberty Financial, issued a stablecoin backed by the dollar and memecoins featuring the president and the first lady, Melania Trump. 

The president’s embrace hasn’t been without controversy.

The millions in dollars in profits already earned by the Trumps is threatening to derail a quick deal on bipartisan stablecoin legislation backed by both the crypto industry and the White House.

Even so, expectations for even higher gains has led to a groundswell of companies being set up to invest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

It has also trigger a series of deals and plans for initial public offerings by digital asset companies. 

“$100K is an obvious psychological milestone,” said Edward Chin, co-founder of Parataxis Capital.

“Given all of the public company BTC treasury plays in the market and more coming down the pipeline, I think BTC will move meaningfully higher into year-end.”

On Thursday, Coinbase Global Inc. agreed to acquire Deribit, the world’s largest exchange for Bitcoin and Ether options, for $2.9 billion (R52 billion) as the biggest US crypto exchange makes a push into the derivatives market. 

“With this break of the psychological 100k level, we will see stops being triggered and capital chasing this bullish momentum,” said Darius Sit, founder and CIO of crypto investment firm QCP.