Bitcoin yesterday was trading up more than 20 percent from last week’s lows, while several other cryptocurrencies that US President Donald Trump said would be included in a new US strategic reserve also rallied sharply.
Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that his January executive order on digital assets would create a stockpile of currencies including bitcoin, ether, XRP, solana and cardano. The names had not previously been announced.
Bitcoin and ether would be at the heart of this reserve, he wrote on Sunday.
Photo: AFP
The post sent bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, up by one-fifth from the November lows it was trading at on Friday, helping flip sentiment on a token that has been sliding since mid-January on disappointment Trump has not followed through on pledges to loosen regulation.
“Trump just gave the pump that crypto traders have been holding out for,” City Index Group senior analyst Matt Simpson said.
“Any faith that was lost last week appears to have been restored,” and new highs could be made unless there was another wave of risk-off selling, he said.
Chris Weston, research head at Australian online broker Pepperstone Group Ltd, said it was possible the rally would extend into the first White House Crypto Summit that Trump is to host on Friday, with the risk that the bearishness in other markets could weigh on sentiment.
While Wall Street closed higher on Friday, the recent sell-off in large technology bellwethers such as Nvidia Corp has eroded confidence in bitcoin, which some see as an alternative tech proxy.
Bitcoin fell more than 17 percent last month, clocking its biggest monthly percentage fall since June 2022 and losing more than one-third of its price since topping US$105,000 in early January.
Its rally since Trump’s election win in November last year was spurred by optimism that the crypto-friendly president would champion a strategic bitcoin fund and end the crackdown on the industry by the administration of former US president Joe Biden.
Beyond a flurry of appointments of crypto-friendly officials when Trump took office, there has been little concrete news so far around that policy for investors.
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
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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