Bitcoin Boosted by Safe-Haven Demand After Trump Victory

Donald Trump's historic victory in the U.S. presidential elections has pushed up prices for the digital currency bitcoin. As the results for the election began to trickle in, the cryptocurrency quickly began to rise at around 2 a.m. London time. From a report on CNBC: The price for bitcoin was around 3.5 percent higher at 11:00 a.m. London time Wednesday at $733.84. Since November 4, the cryptocurrency has been stuck around the $700-709 trading band. The weakening dollar may have added to the rise, but the digital currency is also higher when priced in other currencies like the Chinese yuan, sterling and the euro. Charles Hayter, CEO and founder of Crypto Compare, said that the price is rising on safe-haven demand in reaction to the uncertainty created as a result of Trump's victory.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[fbobraga]

next 50+

You seem too optimistic to me: a maniac with atomic bombs can shorten this number much :P

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[rock217]

I don't think you understand how bitcoin works.

Long time bitcoin user

[Anonymous Coward]

... and this is not a big deal. 3% change is a joke. This title should be more like, "bitcoin stays stable amidst tumultuous election."

Now, if gold or crude spiked, that would be interesting, because someone like trump is unlikely to support laws that severely impact the wealthy.

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[imadeyoureadpoop]

You're right, if there was a 'bitcoin volatility index', today would've been classifiable as stable. The Trump effect on global markets is no joke though. In Australia, where US is the 4th biggest trading partner, the share market has lost $35bn in a day. Also, gold has spiked, it gained over $50 p/ounce, over 4% in the space of 4hrs.

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[NoNeeeed]

What do you use BitCoin for? Genuinly not being sarcastic or anything, I'm interested to know how easy it is to actually use tor "real world" uses these days. I'd always been put off bothering with it as it didn't seem very useful, but it's been around for a long time now so clearly there are uses.

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[Anonymous Coward]

In my country, they require that we use bitcoin for buying drugs online, gambling online and donating to Wikileaks.

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[DanielRavenNest]

I used it as a long-term investment. I accumulated them from 2011 to earlier this year at an average price of $76/btc. Now that it has gone over my price target of $600/btc I'm selling. Unless the current block size logjam is broken, I don't anticipate it will go up that much more in the near term, so I will keep selling until it's gone.

The block size is currently limited to 1 MB/10 minutes. Blocks are sets of transactions which are secured by a series of special hashes that are chained together (hence

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[Xenographic]

Look at the stories posted by msmash.

Noticed a pattern yet?

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[imadeyoureadpoop]

A volcano mid-eruption would be less volatile than President Trump. I mean, we KNOW what will happen with a volcano... Trump though....

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[110010001000]

Christ. Sociopaths/psychopaths all around. Go back to "Lybia".

Seriously?

[110010001000]

Seriously? Who the fuck cares about 3.5% changes in Bitcoin? We just elected a potential psychopath by a landslide. Get a fucking grip, tech people.

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[CajunArson]

Well, after the slashdot 'editors' failed in their sacred duty to ensure that Hillary was elected, they had two choices: Sepuku or carry on the torch.

They took the second option and have decided to make damn well sure that Trump's election is the equivalent of the End Times.

Incidentally, I fully expect to see some sort of editorial about the fact that Trump is also required to do exactly what Obama would have done in a third term because being elected president as a Republican means you are legally required

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[account_deleted]

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[account_deleted]

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[110010001000]

What you describe isn't psychopathic behavior, that is run of the mill Washington corruption. You should be worried about a psychopath. Everyone knows the Clintons are corrupt. I am more worried about a sociopath/psychopath because they are deadly. The fact that you are even worried about "$1 million" shows how clueless you are. $1 million is small potatoes in DC.

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[TeknoHog]

We just elected a psychopath by a landslide.

FTFY. A lot of political and economic leaders are actual psychopaths, so there's no need for extra political correctness.

Meanwhile the GREAT CRASH OF NOV. 9 IS ON!

[CajunArson]

I mean, as I type this the Dow has lost literally -72.49 points!

Which is to say that it's up 72.49 points because a negative loss is a gain.

OMG APOCALYPSE!

No

[jwymanm]

Even before the election night it has been up and down. This is grasping at straws and I really hope that this butterfly effect style news this early on does not continue. Imagine having news coverage like we did up to the end of the election but for the rest of Trump's term. Give it a rest people! More clearer is what happened to stocks thanks to Wall Street speculation so far which could be related to the fact that quite a few were caught off guard. Now if BTC continues to make huge movements then you can

Hey SLASHDOT

[Anonymous Coward]

can you finally stop shilling for the corrupt?

Killary is going down, and Soros money will dry out too.

Just stop. Let it go. SJWs, corrupted Clintons selling state services for $$$, leaking money - this all is over. Move on.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Depends where you live. For Venezuelians bitcoin is a safe haven.

Let the Consequences Begin

[Jim Sadler]

How many investors will be investing in nations that have a sane leadership rather than a Trump led US? Crash and burn may well be the very real and harsh consequence of a Trump led government. This horrid situation is caused by allowing our young to receive really lousy educations. We need to be much more demanding in what we expect from our school students.

Bah, humbug!

[Feral Nerd]

Now that Trump is emperor of the free world the only sensible investment are guns/ammo, diesel oil and canned foods.

Not really

[jovius]

More likely the price was boosted because of the speculation that it might. Bitcoin is rather unhinged from the fundamentals. The central mass of Bitcoin holders/traders typically just expect the price to skyrocket at any occasion.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course.. it's just funny how there are so many Reasons why Bitcoin behaves like it does, of which some are based fantastical fractal analysis etc.

The others then make their profits by playing with that sentiment or reasoning.

It's still rather unfinished and low scale platform, after all. Really long term holders (rationing the investments) would probably also do fine, if the political and technological risks don't materialize...

Gold, etc.?

[eric_harris_76]

In keeping with Slashdot tradition, I will not read the article when I can instead ask a questoin that reading the article would answer. Or should have.

What happened to the price of gold? Silver? Commodities in general?

If they all had the same kinds of moves as bitcoin, yeah, that interpretation makes sense.