Donald Trump, soon-to-be former President of the United States, has shown that he has no bottom line as long as the outcome favours him and his ego as he directly incited civil unrest and violence on January 6. With only two weeks left until the official handover of the position to Joe Biden, Trump supporters ran amok, being allowed illegal entry into Capitol Hill, a catastrophic reflection of the threat Trump continues to pose towards democracy. There may well have been plenty of violent protests over the last few decades, but the last time the Capitol was breached was back in 1814.
That was more than a century ago.
While global attention is on what is definitely not the last of Trump’s stunts to make the transition as challenging as possible, investors are looking further ahead at the incoming Biden administration and also a close Democrats win of the Senate yesterday. Markets have reacted favourably, with the S&P500 up by 0.57%, Dow Jones Industrial Average at 1.44% and Asian stock markets in the green. This includes Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (+0.99%), Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 (+1.59%) and Seoul’s KOSPI (+2.15%).
Bitcoin on the other hand was pushed higher to reach a new high at $37,000. With this level breached, Bitcoin’s current market value has surpassed $1 trillion USD, a major win for Bitcoin and crypto enthusiasts. Analysts are predicting a possible $45,000 price mark before it drops, as there seems there is no stopping Bitcoin in the short term.
The Bitcoin market has never been this lucrative, and according to crypto analytics firm Glassnode, Bitcoin miners are certainly having a field day as total Bitcoin mining revenue has come to a peak of $33 million a day, a number not seen since the 2017 bull run.
“Bitcoin has once again rocketed to an all-time high,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex. “Still, the elegance and technological brilliance of bitcoin represents a very different model. The scramble of institutional investors into the fray with orders to buy bitcoin are a stark recognition of the quantum leap that bitcoin technology represents.”
