Bitcoin hits new high as Trump is sworn in… and value of President's own digital token hits £12bn
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Bitcoin hit an all-time high yesterday as Donald Trump returned to the White House. The crypto currency soared to a record $109,071 in the hours before his inauguration as the 47th US president. Trump and his wife Melania also launched their own ‘meme coins’ in a move that was viewed as a further show of support for digital currencies. The value of the 200m $TRUMP coins in circulation soared to as high as £12billion before retreating.
The remaining 800m coins are due to be issued over the next three years. At their peak, the 1bn coins were theoretically worth a total of £60billion. Meanwhile, the dollar fell sharply – sending the pound up more than 1 per cent to back above $1.23 – after an official said that Trump would not impose new trade tariffs on his first day in office.
He has pledged to add a 10 per cent levy to global imports, 60 per cent on Chinese goods and a 25 per cent import surcharge on Canadian and Mexican products. Crypto rally: Bitcoin soared to a record $109,071 in the hours before Donald Trump's inauguration as 47th US president.
US markets were closed yesterday due to Martin Luther King Day, the fourth time the annual commemoration of the civil rights activist has coincided with a presidential inauguration. In London, the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks closed at a record high of 8520.54.
Bitcoin has been turbocharged by Trump’s election victory after he promised to be a ‘crypto president’. Despite an earlier anti-crypto stance, he became the first presidential candidate to accept digital assets as donations to his campaign. His family launched a crypto currency firm called World.
