By Connor Hart
Bitcoin hit a record high Wednesday, fueled by President-elect Donald Trump's pro-cryptocurrency stance. Bitcoin-mining and crypto-related stocks surged in response.
Miners were up across the board: Cipher Mining rose 25%, to $6.66; CleanSpark gained 18%, to $12.41; Core Scientific jumped 9%, to $14.21; Hut 8 was up 13%, at $18.96; Iris Energy rose 20%, to $10.76; MARA Holdings gained 14%, to $18.47; Riot Platforms jumped 19%, to $11.60; and TeraWulf rose 22%, hitting a new 52-week high of $7.58.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, briefly topped $75,000 in early trading to pass the previous intraday high it had hit in March, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Once a bitcoin skeptic, Trump embraced crypto earlier this year, vowing to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet," and making a series of promises to the crypto industry. These promises include creating a national bitcoin reserve to hold the nation's supply and firing Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has been leading the fight to police the sector.
The sector is hoping regulations will ease under a new Trump Administration, and has been pouring money into super political action committees that have been giving generously to pro-crypto congressional candidates.
Related stocks gained as well. Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase Global and MicroStrategy rose 22%, to $236.62, and 11%, to $252.09, respectively. And BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, an exchange-traded fund, or basket of stocks that can be purchased all at once, hit an all-time high of $42.55, up 7.7%.
Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 06, 2024 12:14 ET (17:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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