forbes.com
Bitcoin has suddenly surged higher, with the price coming within touching distance of $80,000 per bitcoin as expectations soar a U.S. president-elect Donald Trump could create a "game-changing" bitcoin strategic reserve.
The bitcoin price has added almost 20% since this time last week, with traders betting on a key milestone before the new year. Smaller cryptocurrencies—including ethereum, up 30%, dogecoin, up 50%, and cardano, up 70%—have also exploded higher.
Now, as the Federal Reserve and China feed into a "perfect storm" for the bitcoin price, rumors are swirling that a country has been quietly buying up bitcoin.
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"There is at least one nation state that has been actively acquiring bitcoin and is now a top five holder," David Bailey, the chief executive of Bitcoin Magazine publisher Bitcoin Inc and advisor to the Trump election campaign on bitcoin strategy, posted to X. "Hopefully we hear from them soon."
Rumors and speculation that countries are buying up bitcoin have been swirling for years, fueled by El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin as legal tender and experiments in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan with bitcoin mining.
Earlier this year, wild speculation swept social media that Qatar had bought hundreds of billions of dollars worth of bitcoin.
Donald Trump's promise during a July bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee—organized by Bailey—to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet" and create a bitcoin strategic reserve further stoked sky-high expectations.
U.S. senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) introduced The Bitcoin Act to Congress in July, calling for the creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve to reduce the U.S.'s spiraling, near-$36 trillion national debt by buying 1 million bitcoin over five years.
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Elsewhere, the U.S. state of Pennsylvania last month passed a bill establishing some regulatory clarity surrounding bitcoin and crypto designed to protect people's right to self-custody, ensure their ability to use bitcoin as a payment and lay out guidelines around taxing bitcoin transactions.
"Just had a huge phone call," Dennis Porter, founder of the Satoshi Action Fund that helped get the bitcoin and crypto bill passed in Pennsylvania, posted to X. "I’m not going to lie… I am more bullish today than ever before. Huge things coming."