Bitcoinhit a new all-time high as the world's most popular cryptocurrency reached price levels not seen since PresidentDonald Trump's inauguration. The digital asset traded above $109,400 Wednesday morning, a huge increase fromrecentlows of about $75,000 last month. Several other cryptocurrencies have seen similar large gains in recent days. That includes Trump's official meme coins, which have jumped up about 75% in the last month. The president is set to have dinner Thursday with some of the meme coins' biggest investors, a move that's drawn intense criticism from some Democrats who say that Trump is improperly using the power of the presidency to boost his personal wealth. Bitcoin's price increase comes after the crypto industry scored a major win with theU.S. Senate advancing legislationthat creates a federal framework to regulate the stablecoins, a fast-growing form of cryptocurrency whose values are often tied to the U.S. dollar. The bipartisan vote was a major win for thepolitically powerful cryptocurrency industry, which spent heavily in last year's election and has amassed a large war chest for next year's contests. A former skeptic turned enthusiastic booster, Trump has been amajor promoterof the crypto industry andpreviously took creditwhen bitcoin's price broke $100,000 in December. His administration has established a "strategic bitcoin reserve" for the U.S. government and dropped or paused several enforcement actions against major crypto companies.
