BTC突破10万美元，这是一个全新的开始 BTC breaks $100,000, marking a brand new beginning

On December 5, 2024, around 10:30 AM, BTC broke through the $100,000 mark, officially entering the six-figure range, and its market capitalization also surpassed $2 trillion. At this point, it had been 15 years since the birth of BTC.

In 15 years, BTC has grown from $0 to a market value of $2 trillion, standing alongside Google and far exceeding silver. BTC, along with the entire cryptocurrency market, has matured from a newborn to a vibrant teenager with limitless possibilities, ready to embrace the next fifteen years with a new mindset and state.

From $0.0008 to $100,000, BTC has increased by over 125 million times in the past fifteen years. Perhaps we can also look forward to what kind of achievements BTC will write in the next fifteen years.

Meanwhile, with Trump appointing Paul Atkins as the new SEC chairman, preparing to sweep away the ailments left by Gary Gensler's tenure at the SEC, this will also bring new gameplay and new ideas to the industry, making the future of BTC and cryptocurrency promising.

The Past 15 Years of BTC

Let us turn our gaze back 15 years. In November 2008, a paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" authored by Satoshi Nakamoto was published on the internet. This paper systematically explained how to build an electronic transaction system that does not rely on third-party trust through a peer-to-peer network, bringing disruptive ideas to the global financial sector.

At that time, the world was experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis. This crisis began in the United States, marked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, triggering a chain reaction that not only shook the U.S. financial system but also affected the global economy. To save the near-collapse economy, the U.S. government implemented unprecedented intervention policies, including injecting massive public funds into financial institutions and adopting quantitative easing policies. Although these measures stabilized the market in the short term, they also buried hidden dangers: excessive currency issuance, increased inflation risks, intensified financial market volatility, and even led to public distrust in the traditional financial system.

It was against this backdrop that Satoshi Nakamoto conceived the idea of designing a new currency system. He hoped to build a decentralized payment system using technological means, no longer relying on governments and financial institutions. In the traditional financial system, the right to issue currency is monopolized by central banks, and transactions are recorded and processed by financial institutions such as commercial banks. Although this model has operated for many years, it inevitably exposes problems brought about by centralization, such as excessive reliance on monetary policy, corruption within financial institutions, and the lack of transaction privacy.

The core idea of Bitcoin is to break this traditional model. Satoshi Nakamoto proposed the concept of blockchain technology, which is a distributed ledger technology that verifies and records transactions through a consensus mechanism among network nodes. With the help of blockchain, Bitcoin achieved decentralized transactions, allowing users to complete payments directly through a peer-to-peer network without relying on any intermediary. This not only improved transaction efficiency but also reduced costs and provided greater protection for transaction privacy.

Only two months after the paper was published, on January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the Genesis Block of Bitcoin on a small server located in Helsinki, Finland. As a reward, he received the first 50 bitcoins. The timestamp of the Genesis Block also notably included a symbolic phrase: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." This text not only records the historical context of Bitcoin's birth but also highlights its symbolic significance as a reflection on the traditional financial system.

From the moment the Genesis Block was born, Bitcoin officially took its historic first step. Although initially only a few tech geeks and cryptography enthusiasts participated, the potential of this emerging phenomenon gradually became recognized by more people. Bitcoin is not just a digital currency; it is a technological revolution. With decentralization and transparency at its core, it opens up new possibilities for payment methods, value storage, and financial innovation.

As time passed, Bitcoin and the blockchain technology behind it continued to evolve, attracting countless developers, investors, and businesses. Today, Bitcoin has become a global asset, playing an important role not only in the financial sector but also sparking profound discussions about technological ethics and economic systems. It has risen from $0.0008 to $100,000.

How BTC Broke Through

In the early hours of January 11, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs, including BlackRock's IBIT. This move stirred tremendous waves in the global financial market. As of November 21, 2024, within just 10 months, Bitcoin ETFs attracted over $100 billion in inflows, an amount close to 82% of the size of the U.S. gold ETF. This change signifies that Bitcoin is no longer merely a high-risk speculative asset dominated by scattered retail investors, but is gradually becoming an important asset for global institutional investors.

With the influx of these funds, the market structure of Bitcoin underwent a fundamental transformation. Wall Street financial giants, global publicly listed companies, and even several sovereign wealth funds from various countries are participating in this battle for Bitcoin. The rise of institutional investment has made Bitcoin not just a "private domain" for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but an asset class that cannot be ignored within the traditional financial system.

Take MicroStrategy (MSTR) as an example. This company, which once focused on enterprise software, has successfully transformed into the world's largest holder of Bitcoin. As of December 5, 2024, MicroStrategy holds over 402,100 bitcoins, accounting for 1.5% of the total global Bitcoin supply. To achieve this goal, MicroStrategy has spent a total of $23.483 billion purchasing Bitcoin, with an average purchase price of $58,402. Today, MicroStrategy's paper profit has exceeded $16.7 billion, making it one of the most influential Bitcoin "whales" in the world. Meanwhile, over 60 publicly listed companies and thousands of private companies are quietly following MicroStrategy's lead, joining the ranks of Bitcoin hoarders.

Behind this trend, the shift in U.S. policy has played a crucial role. After Trump took office, he quickly cleared a series of institutional barriers to the development of cryptocurrency, adopting a more lenient regulatory policy for cryptocurrencies and supporting the plan to include Bitcoin as a strategic asset in government reserves. This policy relaxation injected strong confidence into the market, driving more capital into the Bitcoin market and laying a solid foundation for the financialization and legitimization of Bitcoin.

The globalization process of Bitcoin is actually a complex script woven from multiple factors. First, against the backdrop of the U.S. implementing a rate-cutting cycle, global capital market liquidity has greatly increased, making Bitcoin increasingly attractive as a non-traditional asset. The entry of Wall Street giants like BlackRock and Vanguard has injected a large amount of institutional capital into the Bitcoin market and provided it with higher market recognition. At the same time, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor has become a fervent supporter of Bitcoin, leveraging debt to increase Bitcoin holdings, which not only pushed up Bitcoin prices but also drove the company's stock price to soar, creating a "stock price - coin price" spiral effect that encouraged more publicly listed companies to follow suit.

More importantly, the shift in cryptocurrency policy under the Trump administration provided institutional guarantees for this process. Trump not only publicly expressed support for Bitcoin but also proposed making Bitcoin a strategic reserve asset for the United States. This historic decision further intensified the "normalization" process of Bitcoin, transforming it from an emerging speculative tool into a part of the global financial system.

This financialization process of Bitcoin can be seen as a meticulously planned "top-level strategy." When Bitcoin ETFs were approved in the U.S. market, Wall Street giants entered the scene, and MicroStrategy and other companies devoured Bitcoin like whales, the entire market underwent profound changes. Cryptocurrency is no longer just an investment product for a small circle; it is gradually becoming an important component of the global capital market, heralding profound changes in the future financial sector.

Through this series of policy adjustments, market changes, and corporate behaviors, Bitcoin's status has undergone a dramatic transformation. In the future, it is likely to be not just an alternative choice among asset classes but one of the core assets in the global economic system.

The Impact of Paul Atkins' Appointment

In addition to the many reasons mentioned above, another important factor that contributed to BTC's breakthrough of $100,000 is the confirmation of the new SEC chairman.

In the early hours of December 5, 2024, Trump announced on his social platform Truth Social that Paul Atkins would become the new chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This decision marks a significant shift in U.S. financial regulatory policy and may have far-reaching implications for future capital markets. Paul Atkins, 66, is a financial regulatory expert with a deep background, dedicated to promoting business freedom and reducing government intervention.

Atkins' political stance and regulatory philosophy align with many conservative financial experts. He advocates for more market-oriented policies and argues for reducing the regulatory burden on businesses. After the 2008 global financial crisis, he publicly opposed the Dodd-Frank Act, which strengthened regulation of financial institutions and imposed hefty fines on companies suspected of violating securities laws. He believes that excessive financial regulation stifles innovation and business vitality, particularly in the fields of digital currency and fintech, making him one of the representatives of market liberalism.

Atkins' political influence became evident after Trump was elected president in 2016. At that time, he played a key role in Trump's transition team, promoting a more lenient financial regulatory policy and advocating for the repeal of many regulations that affected the free operation of financial markets. This stance was implemented after Trump took office, and Trump explicitly expressed support for reducing the regulatory burden on financial institutions.

According to The New York Times, Atkins' appointment may signal that the SEC will adopt a more lenient regulatory strategy, especially regarding the digital transformation of financial markets and the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Atkins has repeatedly stated that he supports solving financial regulatory issues through market-oriented means and emphasizes that the government should respect the free choices of businesses and investors. His regulatory philosophy may provide greater space for technological innovation and the development of capital markets, especially in the fields of cryptocurrency and fintech. With the popularization of digital asset investment tools like Bitcoin ETFs, Atkins' policy direction may accelerate the legalization process of digital assets in mainstream financial markets.

Furthermore, under Atkins' leadership, the SEC may pay more attention to innovative assets and technologies in financial markets, reduce excessive intervention in traditional financial markets, and promote the rapid development of emerging financial products. His appointment is also seen as a kind of "liberation" for the financial industry, especially in a series of financial innovations and digital assets that were previously subject to strict regulation. This shift will not only affect investor confidence but may also change the competitive landscape of the entire financial industry.

Conclusion

BTC has achieved a 125 million-fold increase in 15 years, bringing a brand new industry to the world, which now has tens of millions of practitioners, hundreds of millions of users, and hundreds of segmented tracks. More importantly, the cryptocurrency industry, which has completed the accumulation of initial assets, is ushering in a new dawn, with the integration with AI, the connection with real-world assets (RWA), and the coupling of traditional funds with cryptocurrency funds in areas like equity parity and wealth management all set to further develop. As cryptocurrency technology is adopted on a large scale in reality, we can expect to see more applications of cryptocurrency emerge in the future. BTC breaking through $100,000 is just the beginning, like a pure child stepping into a vibrant adolescence; this is a whole new beginning.

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