Bitcoin rallied past US$80,000 for the first time, boosted by US president-elect Donald Trump’s embrace of digital assets and the prospect of a Congress featuring pro-crypto lawmakers.
The cryptocurrency climbed as much as 4.7 percent to an unprecedented US$80,092 on yesterday.
Trump vowed on the campaign trail to put the US at the center of the digital asset industry, including creating a strategic bitcoin stockpile and appointing regulators enamored with digital assets. He emerged from Tuesday’s election in a stronger position than expected — his Republican Party has control of the US Senate and is on the verge of holding a narrow majority in the US House of Representatives.
Photo: Kevin Wurm, Reuters
“With the dust from Trump’s victory still settling down, it was only a matter of time before a run-up of some sort occurred, given the perception of Trump being pro-crypto, and that’s what we’re seeing now,” Auros Hong Kong managing director Le Shi said.
Bitcoin has added about 90 percent so far this year, helped by robust demand for dedicated US exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve. The rise in the largest digital token, which scaled fresh records after the US vote, exceeds the returns from investments such as stocks and gold.
The ETFs, powered by BlackRock Inc’s US$35 billion iShares Bitcoin Trust, posted a record daily net inflow of almost US$1.4 billion on Thursday, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. A day earlier, the iShares ETF’s trading volume jumped to an all-time peak — all signs of how Trump’s victory is reshaping crypto.
Trump’s stance contrasts with a crackdown on digital assets under US President Joe Biden. US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler repeatedly labeled the sector as rife with fraud and misconduct.
The agency turned the screws on crypto following a 2022 market rout and a litany of collapses, notably the bankruptcy of Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraudulent FTX exchange.
Digital asset companies and executives spent heavily during the US election campaign to promote candidates viewed as favorable toward their interests.
“Trump has promised supportive regulation, and the sweep of the House and the Senate makes the passage of crypto bills much more likely,” wrote Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is accelerating capacity expansion fivefold this year, but it is still unable to keep up with the booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI), TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said yesterday. This year alone, the company is building 25 chip manufacturing fabs and advanced packaging facilities worldwide, including 13 plants in Taiwan, which is unprecedented, Hou said at a CEO Summit fireside chat at Semicon Taiwan in Taipei. In the past, the company was able to build five or six factories a year, said Hou, who is also chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry
EXPANSION: The 3-hectare site would include small clean rooms and laboratories as well as a world-class training base for advanced packaging talent, the company said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is to establish a presence in the Baipu Industrial Park (白埔產業園區) in Kaohsiung to accelerate the testing and validation of semiconductor materials and equipment, a company executive said on Tuesday. The company is working with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Kaohsiung City Government on the plan, which is expected to improve validation efficiency by 25 to 50 percent, TSMC vice president of advanced packaging technology and service Jun He (何軍) said at a 3D IC global summit held ahead of the Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opened in Taipei yesterday. TSMC would also conduct
Visitors look at a 64-qubit superconducting quantum computer on display at the Fujitsu booth at the Semicon Taiwan trade show in Taipei yesterday.
Taiwanese aircraft maker Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空) yesterday announced that it has secured a 20-year partnership agreement with Canada-based Bombardier Inc. The two companies held a ceremony in Taipei yesterday to exchange signed copies of the agreement, launching the 20-year partnership under which AIDC would supply cockpit and forward fuselage structural components for Bombardier’s super-midsize Challenger 3500 business jets, the Taiwanese company said. The agreement represents a new milestone in cooperation between the two companies, which dates back to 1999, with the Taiwanese supplier having provided rear fuselage structural components for more than 1,000 Challenger 3500 aircraft, it
RSS