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(Reuters) -Bitcoin surged to a record high of $106,000 in early trading in Asia on Monday, boosted by the comments of President-elect Donald Trump that he said he plans to create a US bitcoin channel reserve similar to its oil channel reserve.
The largest and most popular cryptocurrency in the world, it peaked at $106,533 and last traded at $105,688. The minor crypto Ether rose about 3% to 4,014.
“We’re in the blue sky here,” said Tony Sycamore, an IG analyst. “The next number that the market will look at is $110,000. The influence that many people expected did not happen, because now we have found this story.”
“We’re going to do the best with crypto because we don’t want China or anybody else — not China but others agree — and we want to be the leader,” Trump told CNBC late last week.
When asked if he wanted to build a crypto reserve similar to oil reserves, Trump said: “Yeah, I think so.”
Other countries have also been considering cryptocurrency strategic reserves.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month questioned the need to hold foreign currency reserves, saying that domestic investments in such reserves are more attractive.
Putin said that the current US administration is undermining the role of the US dollar as a global reserve currency by using it for political purposes, forcing many countries to turn to other currencies, including cryptocurrencies.
“For example, bitcoin, who can stop it? No one,” said Putin.
There are skeptics though, with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell comparing bitcoin to gold earlier this month.
“People are not using it as a means of payment, or as a store of value. It’s very difficult, it’s not a race for the dollar.”
CRYPTO BOOST
Bitcoin is up more than 50% since the Nov. 5 which Trump was elected along with many other pro-crypto people. The total value of the cryptocurrency market almost doubled per year until hitting a record at $3.8 trillion, according to data provider CoinGecko.
Trump this month named the White House czar for the wisdom of mining and cryptocurrencies, former PayPal (NASDAQ: ) chief David Sacks, a close friend of Trump adviser and megadonor Elon Musk.
Trump also announced that he will nominate pro-crypto Washington lawyer Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On Friday, the Nasdaq broker said that MicroStrategy will be added to the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 Index after a meteoric explosion in the shares of the bitcoin buyer.
MicroStrategy, an aggressive investor in the world’s largest crypto economy, has seen its shares increase sixfold this year, taking its market value to around $94 billion. It is now the largest cryptocurrency company.
