Binance CEO calls Trump's election victory a 'big win for crypto' as bitcoin hits a new high

• Trump's election win boosts bitcoin's value to over $80,000 for the first time.
• The president-elect's campaign was partially fueled by his crypto-friendly pledges.
• Bitcoin's market cap now exceeds Meta, Tesla, and Berkshire Hathaway, reaching $1.6 trillion.

Richard Teng, the CEO of Binance, has said Donald Trump's success in the presidential election is a "big win for crypto" as bitcoin's market value surges.

The boss of the world's largest crypto exchange told the Financial Times that his second term in the White House signaled the beginning of a "golden era" for the industry. Teng added that Trump's victory would lead to a rise in new regulators open to virtual currencies.

The price of bitcoin has risen over $80,000 for the first time following the president-elect's win over Kamala Harris last week. It's up by over 80% this year.

Formerly a skeptic for years of crypto, Trump criticized bitcoin as "not money" and "highly volatile and based on thin air."

But during his campaign, he became a staunch supporter of the digital currency, promising to make the US the "crypto capital of the planet."

Trump's recent electoral success was partially fueled by crypto-friendly pledges that resulted in millions of dollars in donations to his campaign, which accepted payments made in digital currencies.

One PAC called Trump 47 raised around $7.5 million in bitcoin, ether, XRP, and other cryptocurrencies.

The soon-to-be 47th president of the US is dedicated to creating a bitcoin stockpile and has proposed launching a crypto advisory council.

Bitcoin's surging price has more than quadrupled its market capitalization since the start of 2023, from around $318 billion to a record $1.6 trillion, per CoinMarketCap data.

The digital currency is now more valuable than Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, worth nearly $1.5 trillion, and Elon Musk's Tesla and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, worth around $1 trillion each.

Ether, the second-most valuable crypto, has more than doubled in market cap from around $150 billion at the start of 2023 to around $385 billion today.