From financemagnates by Arnab Shome

The price of Bitcoin continues to climb and is now trading close to $81,400 after briefly surpassing $81,800. The bullish rally of the cryptocurrency has been driven by Donald Trump's victory as the 47th President of the United States.

Bitcoin rallied around 8 percent during the weekend trading surge, reaching a record value of approximately $81,000 for the first time. Over the past week, Bitcoin increased by about 18 percent in value, with further potential gains on the horizon.

However, BTC is not the best-performing cryptocurrency in the market. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, gained around 30 percent last week and is now trading at nearly $3,200. Solana is another high-performing major token, increasing almost 28 percent over the past seven days and briefly achieving a market cap of over $100 billion.

DOGE Is the Winner

The top-performing cryptocurrency among the popular ones is the meme coin DOGE, which surged over 95 percent last week and nearly 30 percent in the last 24 hours. Occasionally endorsed by billionaire Elon Musk, DOGE even overtook Circle’s stablecoin, USDC, to become the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

The rally in crypto prices also pushed Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index to 78, categorising it as ‘Greed’. However, this figure remains lower than the ‘Extreme Greed’ level of 92, which Bitcoin reached during its rally last March.

Victory of the First ‘Bitcoin President’ Boosts Prices

Bitcoin is decentralised, but its market price is significantly influenced by the policies of powerful governments, such as that of the United States. Trump, who has yet to take over the White House administration, has positioned himself as Bitcoin-friendly.

During his election campaign, he attended several Bitcoin conferences, promising progressive policies for US-based miners. Furthermore, he launched non-fungible tokens and expressed his ambition to become the first ‘Bitcoin President’.

Musk, a close associate of Trump, is also a notable cryptocurrency advocate. His electric car company, Tesla, maintains active Bitcoin investments. Musk has additionally endorsed DOGE, a meme coin without any real-world application, which received a boost from his interest. While Musk’s role in the incoming Trump administration is still unclear, his influence on the White House’s future policies is likely to be significant.