Bitcoin, Riding Wave of Regulatory Wins and Relief Over Trump Tariffs Climbdown, Cruises to an All-Time High

Almost 15 years to the day after some poor schlep paid for two Papa John’s pizzas with bitcoin that would now be worth more than a billion dollars, the value of the cryptocurrency reached an all-time high on Wednesday, surpassing its prior record high in January.The price of the top cryptocurrency rose to $109,500, according to a crypto market data company, Coin Metrics. After floundering for several weeks amid the uncertainty over the Trump tariffs, the price of bitcoin has climbed more than 16 percent in value so far during the month of May alone.“Bitcoin’s new high has been concocted by an array of favorable ingredients in the macro cauldron, namely softer U.S. inflation numbers, a de-escalation in the U.S.-China trade war, and the Moody’s downgrade of U.S. sovereign debt, which has put the spotlight on alternative stores of value like bitcoin,” a co-founder of crypto exchange Nexo, Antoni Trenchev, said to CNBC.“We’ve entered an alternate universe very different from early April when global macro concerns were at their peak and bitcoin slumped to $74,000.”The record high comes on the heels of a Senate vote to advance the so-called Genius Act, which would establish a framework to regulate stablecoins, a cryptocurrency tied to the value of other assets like the U.S. dollar.Bitcoin’s new record high comes on the eve of Bitcoin Pizza Day, which marks the 15th anniversary of the first real-world transaction of the cryptocurrency, when a programmer used it to purchase two pizzas.On May 22, 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz offered 10,000 bitcoin on the online forum Bitcointalk to any members of the forum who ordered him two Papa John’s pizzas to be delivered to his home.A user under the handle “Jercos” took him up on his offer and facilitated the purchase using the currency. At the time, those 10,000 bitcoin had a nominal value of $41, or about 4 cents each. At current prices, they would be worth nearly $1.1 billion.

Bitcoin, Riding Wave of Regulatory Wins and Relief Over Trump Tariffs Climbdown, Cruises to an All-Time High

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