(Reuters) -Bitcoin surged to a record high above $105,000 in early Asian trade on Monday, boosted by comments from President-elect Donald Trump that suggested he plans to create a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its strategic oil reserve.
Bitcoin hit a high of $105,142 and last traded at $104,609.
The price rose on news reports over the weekend that Trump would go ahead with a bitcoin strategic reserve fund, according to Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG.
“We’re in blue sky territory here,” Sycamore said. “The next figure the market will be looking for is $110,000. The pullback that a lot of people were waiting for just didn’t happen, because now we’ve got this news.”
Bitcoin has surged more than 50% since the Nov. 5 election that saw Trump elected along with many other pro-crypto candidates.
“We’re gonna do something great with crypto because we don’t want China or anybody else – not just China but others are embracing it – and we want to be the head,” Trump told CNBC late last week.
When asked if he plans to build a crypto reserve similar to oil reserves, Trump said: “Yeah, I think so.”
The cryptocurrency industry spent more than $119 million backing pro-crypto U.S. congressional candidates, hoping to boost those who would pass crypto-friendly bills to promote digital assets.
Trump this month named a White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies, former PayPal executive David Sacks, a close friend of Trump adviser and megadonor Elon Musk.
(Reporting by Kevin Buckland in Tokyo and Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Lincoln Feast)
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