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Bitcoin value surges following Trump's victory

Lulu Chang
By
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Steve Garfield/Flickr

News of Donald Trump’s ascension from reality television star to the highest elected office in the U.S. sent the stock market into a temporary nosedive, from which it recovered in striking fashion. Trump’s election also had a marked effect on the cryptocurrency bitcoin. Following Trump’s victory, bitcoin value surged to a recent high of $738 overnight, and began trading at around $726 on Wednesday morning, Coindesk reported. That marked a 3-percent increase from Tuesday’s bitcoin price, which stood at $708.

Gold also saw a marked increase in value on Tuesday (it went up 4 percent, only to fall thereafter), but surprisingly, bitcoin was one of the only forms of digital money to benefit from the news of an imminent Trump presidency. Ethereum and Ripple, the second and third largest cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap, respectively, actually saw their values decrease after the election.

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Of course, bitcoin has a history of being somewhat unpredictable, though Fortune points out that this most recent price increase “comes as validation to those who argue it is a haven at times of market volatility.” Indeed, despite a rather rocky debut in trading back in 2010, bitcoin has been rather stable in the last several months of 2016. But it also has yet to reclaim the glory of its heyday back in 2013, when it hit a whopping $1,200 in price.

Indeed, it seems that the bitcoin craze may be cooling a bit, as the blockchain instead takes center stage. Of course, the two are related, as the blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin, and creates permanent transaction records.

There is also some speculation that foreign countries will begin making larger investments in bitcoin in light of a Trump presidency. Chinese market participants, for example, were already buying bitcoin in anticipation of Trump’s victory, with the Wall Street Journal noting that “Chinese investors looking for a refuge from the weakening yuan are turning to bitcoin.” In fact, the Journal reports, “bitcoin trading on three Chinese exchanges accounting for 98 percent of global volume in the past month.”

So start looking into cryptocurrency, friends. A number of sophisticated players already are.

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