Although U.S. banks are not allowed to directly hold bitcoin, they have made significant gains from bitcoin futures, according to data from the Commodity Futures Exchange Commission. Wall Street banks began purchasing bitcoin futures a few weeks before the U.S. presidential election, with the brokerage units of big banks taking long positions amounting to $3 billion. The surge in activity in the crypto market may be due to expectations that the new crypto-friendly Trump administration will ease restrictions on digital asset ownership and support sectors like bitcoin mining. Despite banking regulators advising against banks holding actual bitcoin or providing crypto custody services, institutions are trading spot ETFs and the market is predicting a 31% chance of bitcoin reaching $100,000 by the end of the year.