NEW YORK — The price of bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time ever late Wednesday, and soared to a fresh high in early trading on Thursday.
The new gains extended a rally set off by the election of former President Donald Trump, who is viewed as friendly toward cryptocurrency.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump took credit for the gains: "CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU'RE WELCOME!!!."
Since Election Day, the price of bitcoin has climbed nearly 50%. That performance far outpaces the S&P 500, which has risen about 5% over the same period.
But the breakneck pace of bitcoin’s growth poses a quandary for investors: Is it too late to buy into the rally, or will the good times continue to roll?
Investment analysts who spoke with ABC News gave reason to be optimistic about further gains, citing expectations of a friendly regulatory environment under Trump and continued interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve.
The surge of momentum alone may pull investors from the sidelines, propelling the price of bitcoin higher, they added.
Analysts, however, warned that bitcoin remains a highly volatile asset, making it all but impossible to predict where its price will go next.
“Bitcoin clearly has some things going in its favor,” said Mark Hamrick, Washington bureau chief and senior economic analyst for Bankrate.com.
“The problem with bitcoin is that it’s unclear what drives the underlying fundamentals of the asset,” Hamrick added. “If somebody were to ask me where bitcoin is going in the next week, month or year, I have no idea.”
At least for now, bitcoin is on a tear. The latest surge coincided with a piece of good news for the crypto industry: Trump’s nomination on Wednesday of Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Atkins, the CEO of consulting firm Patomak Partners, serves as co-chair of the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization.
Once a crypto critic, Trump has vowed to bolster the cryptocurrency sector and ease regulations enforced by the Biden administration. Trump has also promised to establish the federal government's first National Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
The positive developments for crypto extend well beyond Trump. In recent months, the Fed has cut interest rates and forecasted additional rate cuts to come. In theory, lower rates could ease consumer borrowing costs and drive more investment in bitcoin.
Strong performance this year has also been driven by U.S. approval in January of bitcoin ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Bitcoin ETFs allow investors to buy into an asset that tracks the price movement of bitcoin, while avoiding the inconvenience and risk of purchasing the crypto coin itself.
Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment analyst at eToro, said those favorable conditions for bitcoin are likely to persist.
“Those same catalysts have the longer-term picture still looking bright for bitcoin,” Kenwell told ABC News in a statement.
Still, experts offered up warnings about the volatility of bitcoin. Even amid its meteoric rise this year, bitcoin experienced a temporary downswing that slashed one-third of its value, Kenwell noted.
As recently as 2021, bitcoin suffered a downturn that cut its value in half. The same thing happened a year earlier, when the initial outset of the pandemic triggered a panic among investors.
Bitcoin has proven sensitive to negative developments for crypto and the wider market in part because it is difficult to peg the value of the asset, Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told ABC News.
Stock investors typically assess the value of a company’s shares by evaluating its service or product. Since bitcoin isn’t currently used as anything besides a store of value, the lack of a clear utility leaves little basis for assessing bitcoin’s value, which contributes to its volatile price movements, Sosnick added.
“Bitcoin isn’t really used in the real world,” Sosnick said, noting the asset could still move higher nevertheless.
“Right now, the public is very enamored with bitcoin,” Sosnick said. “It’s foolish to say that any number – whether it’s $75,000 or $100,000 or anything – is the end of the rise.”