Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin hitting an all-time high above $75,000 earlier this morning, as Donald Trump wins the White House. The cryptocurrency now hovering just below 74,000. Joining us now, we want to bring in Brady Dale, Axios crypto reporter. Brady, it's great to have you back here on set. We spoke not too long ago, talking about the implications of the election, what ultimately it means for the crypto market, the crypto sector, moving forward. I'm curious, as we heard time and time again from President-elect Trump that he wants to make the US the crypto capital of the world. What does that look like?

Well, I think the first thing is probably he's going to get a new SEC chair, someone else who is not going to be quite so hostile to the industry, isn't going to sue all of the best companies in the space. And I think on that question is, just what happens to all these lawsuits and threats of lawsuits? Do a lot of settlements happen? Do they just get thrown out, because you know, these companies need to know that they can move forward. So, I think that's the first thing. You know, he's also said he wants all the Bitcoin to be mined here in the US. That's a, that may be a tougher task than he can pull off, but maybe gets some more of it here. So, that would probably please the American miners.

Yeah, indeed. We might see a lot more bath houses like we've seen in Brooklyn, perhaps, for instance. You know, all these things considered, it seems like there was a growing, a growing bipartisan move as well to create a Bitcoin reserve. What's the reality that we see both sides of the aisle actually come together over that?

Yeah, the Bitcoin reserve, I don't know. That's a really interesting question. I mean, as Trump pointed out, they could start it really easy by just not selling all the Bitcoin that they have. Will they start to buy more is, I think, a much larger question that's super risky. But yeah, folks on both sides of the aisle are at least tentatively interested in doing it. So, I guess we'll just have to see, but it looks likely that the US isn't, at least isn't going to sell the Bitcoin that it's seized for some time.

You know, Brady, it's so interesting, and a great point that Brad brought up just about the fact that we saw bipartisan support, it seems like from Harris and also obviously from Trump, when it comes to the future of crypto within the country. I'm curious then, why are we seeing such a surge this morning under a Trump victory? Talk to us a little bit more about that correlation.

Well, Trump was the only one that was really clear about it. I mean, Harris only spoke to cryptocurrency one time at one speech, and it was, it was really vague, whereas like, you know, I watched Trump in Nashville say, you know, Bitcoin's going to go to the moon if you elect me. That's a much clearer statement, you know. And so, I think, I think that's, that's really it. He said things that he will and won't do, whereas we never got that from Harris. So, markets like certainty, and they like that they've given him answers ahead of time.

Do you think the crypto market's confident though that he's going to follow through on those promises, because that's a whole another question, right? Just how realistic some of those promises are?

I think they're confident. That doesn't mean they're right, but I think they're confident.

Yeah. Anybody that says that they're going to send something to the moon, I mean, many people would largely question if they single-handedly could do it, or enact policy. So, it's going to come down to other elements of the businesses that you were mentioning as well, that are looking to scale up and make sure that they can woo potential crypto investors and holders in the future. It's going to come down to potentially the utilization. Is there anticipated to be any major movement in utilization of crypto, which would perhaps give it more of commonplace within the transaction vernacular for many people who don't already engage with it?

Well, I mean, around the world, it is being used more and more all the time. I mean, there's tens of trillions of dollars of volume in stable coins, which are hands down, you know, the most successful product that the crypto world has made. And if the United States, you know, passes some laws making it clear how stable coins can be used and how they can be deployed by US banks, that only is going to send that market higher. So, I think this idea that no one's using it is a little bit of a misunderstanding here in the US. We're not using it, right? But a lot of folks around the world are actually using this technology, and I think it's going to sneak up on us. It's going to be everywhere pretty soon.

But a central bank coin versus using what is the largest market cap coin in Bitcoin, I mean, that isn't that starkly different than, in trying to boost the value of Bitcoin versus boosting the value or the usability or fungibility of some of the digital currencies that are US, or even any type of central bank backing as well?

Oh, well, central bank currency is a whole different question. I was just talking about stable coins, so like, privately issued stable coins. I think, and that's going to move a lot more quickly than big central bank digital currencies. That's a big, that's a big question mark out there.

All right, Brady Dale, thanks so much for taking the time to join us here on set this morning.

Yes.