Bitcoin hits all-time high on Inauguration Day

Bitcoin surged to an all-time high on Monday, hours before Donald Trump took office as President of the United States.

Over the course of Monday, Bitcoin spiked to $109,350 before dipping below $105,000.

President Trump has talked about cryptocurrency on numerous occasions in the leadup to taking office again. Bitcoin started gaining steam over the week before the inauguration, with speculation rising that Trump would announce a Bitcoin-related executive order.

According to reports, Trump is planning on reducing regulations around cryptocurrency, something that could spur adoption.

The spike in Bitcoin price also happened after the launch of two new meme coins by the Trumps – simply named $TRUMP and $MELANIA. Trump's coin was launched on Friday, Jan. 17, with Melania's coin following a few days later. Both are based on the Solana blockchain.

Meme coins are essentially cryptocurrencies that are based on some aspect of internet culture. They’re not really considered to carry any intrinsic value, but can be bought and sold, and can rise or fall in cost.

The most famous meme coin is Dogecoin (DOGE), which was essentially created as a joke, but has been heavily promoted by Elon Musk. Dogecoin is also on the rise, sitting at $0.36 at the time of this writing – though it’s still only a little over half the value of its all-time-high of $0.64, which it hit in May 2021 shortly after the GameStop squeeze. 

As for Bitcoin, we’ll have to wait and see if the rally continues, or if the currency settles after its latest surge.