Bitcoin hit a record high in Asian trading as investors looked to Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency, BTC, rose 7% to $75,060, surpassing its March high, as the prospect of Trump returning to the White House heralded a softer line on crypto regulation. currencies.

Republican Trump won 15 states while Democrat Kamala Harris won seven states and Washington, D.C., according to Edison Research, and although the race is still too early to call, financial markets have started to move in the session Asian to assess the victory of the former president.

Matthew Dibb, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency asset manager Astronaut Capital, said markets were expecting a change in attitude from the US Securities and Exchange Commission to remove a chokepoint for cryptocurrency innovation and speculation.

“(A) Democratic victory would have been like a short-term nail in the coffin,” he said. “That’s probably not the case in the long term, but the market values ​​it.”

The smaller cryptocurrency ether, ETH, also jumped 7.5%, but at $2,593, it remains well below its 2021 high of $4,867.

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Trump has pledged to make the United States the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world” and put tech billionaire and right-wing conspiracy theorist Elon Musk in charge of a massive government waste audit.

Trump’s previous term saw corporate tax cuts that brought more liquidity to markets, encouraging investment in high-growth assets such as cryptocurrencies.

Trump announced in September that he and his sons and entrepreneurs would launch a digital currency platform called World Liberty Financial.

But the launch of sales was hesitant at the start of the month, and only a fraction of its tokens put on the market found a buyer.

World Liberty Financial allows users to lend or borrow cryptocurrencies to each other – a service already offered by many platforms, one of the best known being Aave.