By George Glover
The Bitcoin price was rising early Friday, with crypto zealots eagerly awaiting a speech by former President Donald Trump.
The largest cryptocurrency was up 4.1% to $67,321 over 24 hours. It's now trading 8% shy of its record high price of about $73,000 set in March.
The move higher comes with excitement building about Trump's appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tenn. The Republican nominee for the presidential election is a recent crypto convert and will give the convention's keynote address on Saturday.
Some investors are hoping Trump will use the platform to make a major announcement, such as to throw his support behind having the U.S. government buy Bitcoin as a "strategic reserve" asset, giving it a similar status to foreign currencies or oil. Even though he wouldn't be able to push through that legislation quickly, the speculation has lifted crypto prices.
Ether, the second-largest token in terms of market capitalization, climbed 2.1% to $3,239. Solana rose 5.8%, and Cardano climbed 4.4%.
Some crypto stocks also appeared to be benefiting from the excitement. Coinbase was up 4.8% ahead of the opening bell, and MicroStrategy jumped 5.3%.
Write to George Glover at george.glover@dowjones.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 26, 2024 08:01 ET (12:01 GMT)
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