Shortly after BTC broke the USD 100k mark, speculation over where the digital asset is heading next ran rampant. The cryptocurrency reached an all time high of USD 103.7k on Wednesday, though it has since fallen below the USD 100k mark to sit at USD 99.8k as of midnight last night. It has more than doubled in value this year, with a more than 50% increase in value over the past four weeks since Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, Bloomberg reports. The total value of the crypto market has doubled to a record of over USD 3.8 tn, with BTC alone hitting a value of just shy of USD 2 tn.

Trump’s pro-crypto agenda supercharged digital assets: The US president previously stated that he intends to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet” and to gather a national stockpile of BTC. He also nominated pro-crypto businessman Paul Atkins to serve as the chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The president-elect also recently launched a new decentralized finance venture — World Liberty Financial — for cryptocurrency trading.

Could the USD 100k milestone signal a new era for BTC? “BTC and the entire digital asset ecosystem are on the brink of entering the financial mainstream — this momentum is fuelled by institutional adoption, advancements in tokenisation and payments, and a clearer regulatory path,” Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of US crypto firm Galaxy Digital, told Reuters. Other experts also expect the momentum to continue.

Digital asset funds are taking over: Sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and family offices have expressed plenty of interest in 2024 in BTC exchange traded funds (ETFs), as they generated over USD 76 bn in investments since their launch. “Roughly 3% of the total supply of bitcoins that will ever exist have been purchased in 2024 by institutional money,” global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, Geoff Kendrick, said.

Still, it is not all rosy in crypto’s future: Despite the recent rally, plenty of investors still believe that cryptocurrencies are too volatile and unpredictable to be a mainstream asset class, with long term price behaviour depending on larger market conditions. Cryptocurrencies have also been previously criticized for consuming large amounts of energy and their active use in crime around the world.

EGX30

30,840

0.02% (YTD: +23.9%)

USD (CBE)

Buy 49.94

Sell 50.07

USD (CIB)

Buy 49.96

Sell 50.06

Interest rates (CBE)

27.25% deposit

28.25% lending

Tadawul

11,932

+0.4% (YTD: +0.0%)

ADX

9,266

-0.1% (YTD: -3.3%)

DFM

4,854

+0.7% (YTD: +19.6%)

S&P 500

6,090

+0.3% (YTD: +27.7%)

FTSE 100

8,309

-0.5% (YTD: +7.4%)

Euro Stoxx 50

4,978

+0.5% (YTD: +10.1%)

Brent crude

USD 71.12

-1.4%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 3.08

-0.1%

Gold

USD 2,660

+0.4%

BTC

USD 99,755.00

-0.7% (YTD: +136.2%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 remained essentially flat at Thursday’s close on turnover of EGP 3.7 bn (11.6% below the 90-day average). Regional investors were the sole net sellers. The index is up 23.9% YTD.

In the green: Ezz Steel (+4.4%), Credit Agricole (+2.5%), and Cleopatra Hospitals (+2.5%).

In the red: Eastern Company (-2.0%), Fawry (-1.4%), and Palm Hills Development (-1.0%).

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