Bitcoin breaks the 100k barrier as Trump nominates Atkins as Chair of the SEC

Today’s big news is Bitcoin breaking through the psychologically important 100,000 USD mark.

On Wednesday evening, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Patomak Global Partners CEO Paul Atkins as the next Chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). A leading voice in the cryptocurrency industry, Atkins is a former SEC commissioner and a staunch advocate of digital innovation and deregulation, with Patomack Global Partners providing consultancy to major cryptocurrency and fintech companies.

Posting on Truth Social, Trump said of Atkins: “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”

The market’s response to the news of the nomination was immediate, with Bitcoin pushing through resistance at the 99,000 level to peak at over 103,000 in early trading.

Industry leaders celebrated the moment as the herald of a new dawn for the industry.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Kris Marszalek, chief executive of exchange Crypto.com said: “Bitcoin reaching $100k is an incredible milestone for our movement. We never doubted. We never wavered. And we will never stop building.”

Trump had previously expressed his intention to rein in the SEC’s antagonistic approach to the crypto industry. Under its current leadership, the SEC has launched lawsuits against many of the crypto industry’s largest companies and slapped a $4.3bn fine on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, for failing to prevent money laundering.

With Trump’s allies in control of both houses of Congress and Atkins set to take the reins of the financial regulator in January, the crypto industry expects a much softer approach to digital currencies and their nascent relationship with institutional capital.

Since they received regulatory approval earlier this year, exchange-traded funds investing in Bitcoin have pulled in billions. The inflows have accelerated since Trump’s sweeping victory, with $4.4bn pouring in since the start of November. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF now has $45bn in assets.

Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini, said, “This bitcoin bull run is different. We have… a pro-tech president-elect, a red Senate, a red House, and [a] popular vote mandate from the country to build.”

Elsewhere on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell gave his thoughts on cryptocurrencies at the DealBook Summit: “People use Bitcoin as a speculative asset. It’s like gold—it’s just virtual and digital… It’s not a competitor for the dollar. It’s really a competitor for gold.”

Other cryptocurrencies also benefited from the market’s optimism, with Ethereum also climbing 5.5% to $3,900.

It is hard to tell where Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies will go from here. With little driving crypto prices other than sentiment, market nervousness has an outsized role in determining their future direction.

In a blog post, on-chain analytics firm Santiment observed that “…the only factor holding back… history being made is retail traders’ excitement… the ratio of positive vs. negative comments across social media indicates mainly hesitance and uncertainty from traders.”

Technical Analysis

Having hit the psychologically important 100,000 USD mark on 22 November 2024, Bitcoin pulled back to the 90,000 USD level on Tuesday, 26 November, before continuing its rise through 100,000 USD following Trump’s SEC nominee post last night.

In the short term, it’s clear that Bitcoin is in a rising channel (highlighted in blue), which shows that investors are steadily buying the coin at higher and higher prices. From a technical perspective, this channel indicates a strong bullish trend, with prices consistently making higher highs and higher lows. The price is currently near the upper boundary of this channel, suggesting it is testing a key resistance level.

The 200-day EMA (blue line) acts as a long-term support, currently at 69,579 USD, the 100-day EMA (purple line) provides medium-term support, at 76,886.03 USD, while the 50-day EMA (red line) indicates short-term momentum, at 85,094.48 USD. The price is significantly above all EMAs, which signals strong bullish momentum.

 Support Levels:

• 100,000 USD: Psychological support, as the price just broke above this level and will likely retest it.
• The lower boundary of the channel serves as dynamic support, currently near 85,000–90,000 USD.
• Additional support aligns with the 50-day EMA near 85,094 USD.

Resistance Levels:

• 104,000–105,000 USD: Current resistance, as the price struggles near the upper channel boundary.
• If this breaks, the next resistance could be extrapolated from the channel, near 110,000 USD.
• A failure to maintain the breakout above 100,000 USD would indicate a return to support levels around $85,000 (in line with the 50-day EMA).

 Relative Strength Index (RSI):

• The RSI is hovering around 70.75, which is near overbought territory.
• This suggests the rally could pause for consolidation or retrace slightly before continuing.