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Bitcoin continued its rapid climb and hit another all-time high Monday as US lawmakers begin a week focused on passing pro-crypto legislation. Data from CoinMarketCap showed bitcoin climbed above USD 123,000 early Monday, up from about USD 108,000 only a week ago. The world's oldest and most popular cryptocurrency is currently the fifth most valuable asset class in the world at USD 2.4 trillion, giving it a higher market cap than Amazon. The enthusiasm for bitcoin comes as the US House is set to take up several pieces of cryptocurrency-related legislation in what's been dubbed crypto week in Congress. Lawmakers have been under pressure from President Donald Trump and the big-spending crypto lobby to pass legislation quickly. That includes a bill passed last month by the Senate that would regulate a type of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins. The House is also set to take up a cryptocurrency market structure legislation that is far more sweeping. Trump, once a sceptic of the indus
It's one of crypto's hottest trends: publicly traded companies buying bitcoin and then buying even more. President Donald Trump's media company just announced a plan to raise USD 2.5 billion to buy bitcoin, joining a growing number of so-called bitcoin treasury companies as the world's most popular crypto-currency hits all-time highs. The companies buy bitcoin for different reasons: Some hold it as a hedge against inflation or to signal support for the crypto-currency industry, while some firms have made using debt and stock sales to buy bitcoin their primary business strategy. The world at large has no idea what's happening and they're in for a big shock, Dylan LeClair, an executive at the Japan-based Metaplanet, which recently went from being a budget hotel firm to a bitcoin treasury company, said at a recent crypto conference. This is a one-way train, nothing is going to stop this. The massive increases in some firms' stock price may seem to validate LeClair's bravado, but there
It seems like a triumph for a cryptocurrency industry that has long sought mainstream acceptance: Top investors in one of President Donald Trump's crypto projects invited to dine with him at his luxury golf club in Northern Virginia on the heels of the Senate advancing key pro-crypto legislation and while bitcoin prices soar. But Thursday night's dinner for the 220 biggest investors in the $TRUMP meme coin has raised uncomfortable questions about potentially shadowy buyers using the anonymity of the internet to buy access to the president. While Democrats charge that Trump is using the power of the presidency to boost profits for his family business, even some pro-Trump crypto enthusiasts worry that the president's push into meme coins isn't helping their efforts to establish the credibility, stability and legitimacy they had thought his administration would bring to their businesses. After feeling unfairly targeted by the Biden administration, the industry has quickly become a ...