Bitcoin's story keeps getting more compelling

Happy Friday investors. Many investors have waited a long time for bitcoin to reach $100,000. Below, we’re unpacking the three items from the last 24 hours that are pushing it over the edge.

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The inevitable round number

Markets love a good story, and the narrative driving bitcoin just keeps getting better.?

The asset’s price turned parabolic when Americans elected Donald Trump for his second term earlier this month, climbing 45% in roughly two weeks.?

Seemingly overnight, calls for bitcoin to hit the coveted $100,000 milestone turned from overly-ambitious to table stakes.

On Thursday, it touched $99,000 for the first time.?

Separate from the boom in ETF demand and retail and institutional FOMO, bitcoiners just got three new plot points:?

1. SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced he would step down January 20
2. Crypto heavyweights are vying for seats in Trump’s crypto council
3. A sitting US Senator called on the US to sell gold and buy bitcoin

The first point marks a win for the digital asset industry at large, as Gensler’s exit opens the door to a more crypto-friendly regulatory boss.?

Recall that Trump had said during his campaign that he would replace Gensler himself if given the opportunity. That was one of his several promises he made as he billed himself as the bitcoin candidate.?

To the second point, the Trump team is holding discussions with industry professionals on a new potential White House position dedicated entirely to crypto policy, Bloomberg first reported.?

The first of its kind, the “crypto czar” would chime in on token regulations and, critically, have the ear of the president.

Executives from Coinbase and Binance, among others, have reportedly met with the Trump team this week.?

And finally, US Senator Cynthia Lummis provided the final call-to-action to tie all of the above together.?

In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Lummis proposed converting the Federal Reserve’s existing gold certificates to create a strategic bitcoin stockpile to hold for 20 years.??

“Because of the way that bitcoin has been appreciating since inception, this would be an asset that would help shore up the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” Lummis said, adding that it could help reduce the national debt “significantly.”

Whether that vision comes to fruition as intended remains to be seen.

That said, investors are scrambling for bitcoin exposure via ETFs, acquiring the crypto directly, or investing in companies like MicroStrategy that are buying bitcoin.?

“Crypto has certainly caught many’s attention, and they’ve made a lot of money doing it,” Rick Wurster, CFA, CMT , Charles Schwab’s incoming CEO, said Thursday. “I have not bought crypto, and now I feel silly.”

Feedback or thoughts? Leave a comment below.

Elsewhere:

?? MicroStrategy faces a short seller. The stock tumbled 10% Thursday after Andrew Left’s Citron Research announced it was betting against the software-turned-bitcoin company. Leading up to the day prior, shares of MicroStrategy had climbed some 650% in 2024. (Bloomberg)

?? Natural gas prices are climbing. Forecasts for a cold winter across the US have catalyzed the natural-gas rally over the last two days, and costs for power-generation and heating fuel are at new highs for the year. That said, inventories remain 6.4% higher than the five-year average. (WSJ)

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