Bitcoin tops $100,000 for first time on optimism over Trump crypto plans

Published

3 months ago

December 6, 2024

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Bitcoin rose above $100,000 for the first time on Thursday as the election of Republican Donald Trump as president of the United States spurred expectations that his administration will create a friendly regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin has more than doubled in value this year and is up about 45% in the four weeks since Trump’s sweeping election victory, which also saw a slew of pro-crypto lawmakers being elected to Congress.

It last traded at $100,027 as of 0240 GMT, up 2.2% on the previous session, after earlier rising as high as $100,277.

“We’re witnessing a paradigm shift. After four years of political purgatory, bitcoin and the entire digital asset ecosystem are on the brink of entering the financial mainstream,” said Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of US crypto firm Galaxy Digital.

“This momentum is fueled by institutional adoption, advancements in tokenization and payments, and a clearer regulatory path.”

More than 16 years after its creation, bitcoin appears on the cusp of mainstream acceptance, despite naysayers and a history of controversies.

“Bitcoin crossing $100,000 is more than just a milestone; it’s a testament to shifting tides in finance, technology, and geopolitics,” said Justin D’Anethan, a Hong Kong-based independent crypto analyst.

“The figure not that long ago dismissed as fantasy, stands as a reality.”

Trump embraced digital assets during his campaign, promising to make the United States the “crypto capital of the planet” and to accumulate a national stockpile of bitcoin.

Crypto investors see an end to increased scrutiny under US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who said last week he wouldstep downin January when Trump takes office.

On Wednesday, Trump said he would nominate Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, has been involved in crypto policy as co-chair of the Token Alliance, which works to “develop best practices for digital asset issuances and trading platforms,” and the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

A slew of crypto companies including Ripple, Kraken and Circle arejostlingfor a seat on Trump’s promised crypto advisory council, seeking a say in his planned overhaul of US policy, according to several digital asset industry executives.

Trump’s businesses may also have a stake in the sector.

He unveiled a new crypto business, World Liberty Financial, in September.

Although details about the business have been scarce, investors have taken his personal interest in the sector as a bullish signal.

Trump’s social media company is inadvanced talksto buy crypto trading firm Bakkt, the Financial Times reported last week, citing two people with knowledge of the talks.

Trump Media and Technology Group, which operates Truth Social, is close to an all-stock acquisition of Bakkt, according to the FT report.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a major Trump ally, is also a proponent of cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin’s rebound from a slide below $16,000 in late 2022 has been rapid, boosted by the approval of US-listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January this year.

The Securities and Exchange Commission had long attempted to block ETFs from investing in bitcoin, citing investor protection concerns, but the products have allowed more investors, including institutional investors, to gain exposure to bitcoin.

More than $4 billion has streamed into US-listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds since the election.

“We were trading basically sideways for about seven months, then immediately after November 5, US investors resumed buying hand-over-fist,” said Joe McCann, CEO and founder of Asymmetric, a Miami digital assets hedge fund.

There was a strong debut for options on BlackRock’s ETF,in November with call options – bets on the price going up – substantially more popular than puts. McCann calculated the put to call ratio at about 22 to one.

Crypto-related stocks have soared along with the bitcoin price, with shares in bitcoin miner MARA Holdings,up around 65% in November.

Yet the rise is not without critics.

Two years ago, the industry was wracked by scandal with the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and the jailing of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

The cryptocurrency industry also has been criticized for its massive energy usage, while crypto crime remains a concern, too.

Market participants are keeping a close eye on what happens now that bitcoin has broken above $100,000, with investors and speculators possibly looking to pocket some of their recent gains.

“But once we flush out those sell orders, this could go higher still, and very rapidly,” said Steven McClurg, founder of Canary Capital, a digital assets investment firm.

He said he expects bitcoin’s price to hit $120,000 by Christmas.

Politics

Dubai state-owned bank Emirates NBD debuts crypto trading on Liv X app

Published

1 hour ago

March 6, 2025

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Dubai state-owned bank Emirates NBD debuts crypto trading on Liv X app

One of the largest banking groups in the region, Dubai-state-run Emirates NBD, offers crypto trading services in collaboration with Aquanow and Zodia Custody.

US

Trump tells Hamas ‘you are dead’ if Israeli hostages are not immediately handed over

Published

1 hour ago

March 6, 2025

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Trump tells Gazans 'you are dead' if Israeli hostages are not immediately handed over

US President Donald Trump has told Hamas to hand over Israeli hostages or “you are dead”.

The threat, made over social media, came hours after the White House confirmed that US officials had broken with tradition to hold direct talks with Hamas.

The US has previously avoided direct contact with the group owing to Washington’s longstanding position not to negotiate with terrorists – with Hamas having been designated as a terrorist group in the US since 1997.

In a press conference on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there had been “ongoing talks and discussions” between the US officials and Hamas.

But she would not be drawn on the substance of the talks – taking place in Doha, Qatar – between US officials and Hamas, but said Israel had been consulted.

Ms Leavitt continued: “Dialogue and talking to people around the world to do what’s in the best interest of the American people, is something that the president has proven is what he believes is a good faith, effort to do what’s right for the American people.”

There are “American lives at stake,” she added.

Adam Boehler, Mr Trump’s pick to be special envoy for hostage affairs, participated in the direct talks with Hamas.

A spokesperson for Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had “expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas”.

Hours later, Mr Trump warned Hamas to hand over Israeli hostages or “it’s over for you” – adding: “This is your last warning”.

On his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump wrote: “Release all of the hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered or it is over for you.

“Only sick and twisted people keep bodies and you are sick and twisted. I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”

Mr Trump met with freed Israeli hostages on Wednesday, something he referenced in his social media post, before adding: “This is your last warning. For the leadership of Hamas, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance.

“Also, to the people of Gaza, a beautiful future awaits, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead. Make a smart decision. Release the hostages now, or there will be hell to pay later.”

Israel estimates about 24 living hostages, including American citizen Edan Alexander, and the bodies of at least 35 others, are still believed to be in Gaza.

The US has a long-held policy of not negotiating with terrorists – which it is breaking with these talks as Hamas has been designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government’s National Counterterrorism Center since 1997.

The discussions come as a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire continues to hold, but its future is uncertain.

Mr Trump has signalled he has no intention of pushing the Israeli prime minister away from a return to combat if Hamas does not agree to terms of a new ceasefire proposal – which, Israel says, has been drafted by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

The new plan would require Hamas to release half its remaining hostages – the group’s main bargaining chip – in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.

Israel has made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners, a key component of the first phase.

Fighting in Gaza has been halted since 19 January.

Hamas has exchanged 33 Israeli and five Thai hostages for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Technology

Alibaba shares soar after Chinese tech giant unveils new DeepSeek rival

Published

1 hour ago

March 6, 2025

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Alibaba shares soar after Chinese tech giant unveils new DeepSeek rival

The Alibaba office building is seen in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on Aug 28, 2024.

CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Alibaba shares surged on Wednesday after the Chinese behemoth revealed a new reasoning model it claims can rival DeepSeek’s global blockbuster R1.

Hong Kong-listed shares of Alibaba ended the Thursday session up 8.39% — hitting a new 52-week high — with the company’s New York-trading stock rising around 2.5% in premarket deals. Alibaba shares have gained nearly 71% in Hong Kong in the year to date.

The Chinese giant on Thursday unveiled QwQ-32B, its latest AI reasoning model, which it said “rivals cutting-edge reasoning model, e.g., DeepSeek-R1.”

Alibaba’s QwQ-32B operates with 32 billion parameters compared to DeepSeek’s 671 billion parameters with 37 billion parameters actively engaged during inference — the process of running live data through a trained AI model in order to generate a prediction or tackle a task.

Parameters are variables that large language models (LLMs) — AI systems that can understand and generate human language — pick up during training and use in prediction and decision-making. A lower volume of parameters typically signals higher efficiency amid increasing demand for optimized AI that consumes fewer resources.

Alibaba said its new model achieved “impressive results” and the company can “continuously improve the performance especially in math and coding.”

Both established and emerging AI players around the world are racing to produce more efficient and higher-performance models since the unexpected launch of DeepSeek’s revolutionary R1 earlier this year.

Chinese firms have been doubling down on the technology with Alibaba investing in AI after debuting its first model in 2023. The strength of the company’s cloud Intelligence unit was a key contributor to Alibaba’s sharp profit hike in the December quarter.

“Looking ahead, revenue growth at Cloud Intelligence Group driven by AI will continue to accelerate,” Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu said at the time.

Optimism surrounding AI developments could lead to large gains for Alibaba stock and set the company’s earnings “on a more upwardly-pointing trajectory,” Bernstein analysts said.

“The pace of innovation is incredibly fast right now. It’s really good for the world to see this happening,” Futurum Group CEO Dan Newman told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday. “When DeepSeek came out, it made everyone sort of question, was OpenAi the final answer? Would the incumbents, the Microsofts, the Googles, or the Amazons that have all made massive investments win?”

He stressed that the large language models were increasingly “becoming commoditized” as developers look to drive down costs and improve access to users.

“As we see this more efficiency, this cost coming down, we’re also going to see use going off. The training era, which is what Nvidia really built its initial AI boom off, was a big moment,” Newman said. “But the inference, the consumption of AI, is really the future and this is going to exponentially increase that volume.”