Bitcoin jumps past $104,000 as Trump pardons Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht

On Wednesday, the price of bitcoin jumped to more than $104,000, following Donald Trump’s announcement of a presidential pardon for Silk Road and bitcoin-libertarian folk hero Ross Ulbricht. The digital asset community also eagerly anticipated a flood of crypto executive orders that would overturn years of perceived regulatory slights.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a long-standing gauge of crypto market sentiment, was green on Wednesday, signaling a renewed bullish outlook. “This is considered the initial stage of ‘extreme greed’,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro chief market analyst. “During a bull market phase, values exceeding 80 increase the risk of a corrective pullback, whereas current values may coexist with further movement towards historical highs,” he said.

The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, ethereum, rose to around $3,270, while altcoins like Solana rose to more than $255 and XRP increased to $3.23 at the time of writing.

Last week, XRP recorded $31 million in inflows, bringing its total inflows over the last few weeks to $484 million, according to a new CoinShares report . XRP was also singled out for its major growth potential by MN Consultancy founder Michael van de Poppe, alongside altcoins like Matic, Algorand, Chainlink, and Aave.

Bitcoin recorded $2.7 billion in inflows so far this year, according to a new CoinShares report . Meanwhile, CoinShares also said that worldwide investments in cryptocurrency funds surged 46-fold last week, reaching $2.195 billion — the highest level in over a month.

“Digital asset investment products recorded inflows of US$2.19 billion last week amid the Trump inauguration euphoria, the largest week of inflows so far this year," said James Butterfill, Head of Research at CoinShares.