Bitcoin edges higher as investors shake off initial Trump disappointment

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, edged higher in choppy trading on Tuesday after backing off its fresh Monday record amid investor disappointment over U.S. President Donald Trump's failure to unveil crypto-friendly policies on his first day in office. 

Bitcoin hit a record high $109,071 on Monday when Trump - who has pledged to be a "crypto president" - was sworn in, but the cryptocurrency pared those gains and traded lower in European and Asian hours after crypto failed to feature in Trump's flurry of executive actions on Day One. 

It later gained 2.40 per cent to $105,009.35 in U.S. trading hours, while Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, rose 0.84 per cent to $3,308.53, as the market started to shake off some of that disappointment. Some analysts warned, however, to expect volatility until Trump's administration started to announce concrete policies long hoped for by the crypto industry. 

"The digital asset market is disappointed to not have been mentioned in the inauguration speech or Day One executive orders," said Geoffrey Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered. 

"I suspect bitcoin will end up going lower so long as we get no news from Trump on digital assets. A break back below $100,000 seems inevitable," he said. 

Trump's own $TRUMP-branded "meme coin," launched on Friday evening, was down 20.5 per cent at $39.68 on Tuesday, giving it a market capitalization of about $8 billion, according to cryptocurrency price tracker CoinMarketCap. Its price has roughly halved since its peak of around $75. 

A separate meme coin launched by first lady Melania Trump was down 44.4 per cent at $4.28, with a market capitalization of about $823 million. 

World Liberty Financial, a separate Trump-linked crypto project, also announced on Monday it had completed an initial token sale, raising $300 million, and that it would issue additional tokens. 

Trump has pledged to hand management of his assets to his children, but his crypto ventures have been criticized by ethics experts as raising conflict of interest issues and stoking speculation in a class of assets seen as volatile. 

In a move viewed as positive by the crypto industry, Trump on Monday tapped Mark Uyeda, a Republican member of the U.S.

Securities and Exchange Commission, as acting chair of the SEC. 

He and fellow Republican commissioner Hester Peirce are expected to kick-start an overhaul of crypto policy at the agency, which cracked down on the industry under former President Joe Biden's Democratic SEC chair, Gary Gensler. 

Trump is also still expected to issue executive orders in coming days that will further promote bitcoin adoption, Reuters and other media outlets have reported. 

Speaking to Reuters Global Markets Forum at the start of this week's World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of stablecoin issuer Circle, said he expected executive orders "imminently" which he said could allow banks to trade crypto, offer crypto investments to wealthy clients and hold it in portfolios.   

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)