Bitcoin took a breather after topping US$108,000 for the first time as traders await an expected Federal Reserve interest-rate cut and assess a wave of optimism from President-elect Donald Trump's support for crypto.
The largest token touched US$108,315 on Dec 17 before falling back to US$104,800 as of noon on Dec 18 in Singapore. The overall value of digital assets came within a whisker of US$4 trillion during the earlier rally, CoinGecko data show.
Trump has promised friendly regulations to allow the US to dominate the crypto sector and even backed the idea of a strategic national Bitcoin reserve. MicroStrategy Inc's upcoming inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 Index added to the positive mood by opening up the possibility of more share-price gains for a company whose main activity is raising capital to invest in Bitcoin.
The Fed is widely expected to implement another quarter-point rate cut on Dec 18 but there is less clarity on the policy outlook next year due to robust US economic growth and inflation risks from Trump's wider agenda.
Bitcoin is up more than 55% since Trump's victory in the presidential election on Nov 5. Investors have flocked to US exchange-traded funds for the original cryptocurrency, setting aside warnings about the token's history of volatility, signs of stretched momentum and crypto's lack of traditional valuation tethers.
