Bitcoin broke $100,000 on Thursday as investors bet on a friendly U.S. regulatory shift, while world stocks touched fresh record highs with sentiment bolstered by upbeat comments on the economy from Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell.
Powell said the economy was stronger than it had appeared in September when the central bank began cutting interest rates, allowing policymakers to potentially be a little more cautious in reducing rates further. Its latest surge came after Trump said he would nominate Paul Atkins to run the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“But the reality is we’ve been able to get to this level because the industry has become institutionalized this year particularly - and that’s mostly the ETF inflows,” he said, referring to exchange traded funds approved earlier this year.Over the past week and a half markets have all but priced in an extra U.S. rate cut for 2025 and the implied chance of a cut in December has lifted from even to around 75%.