The price of Bitcoin topped $82,000 Monday, while other cryptocurrencies were also racking up gains as investors bet that Donald Trump’s win in last week’s presidential election will boost digital assets.The large-cap token climbed 3.9% to $82,649, having passed $80,000 for the first time ever on Sunday. It’s up about 17% since it became clear that president-elect Trump would beat Vice President Kamala Harris.Bitcoin is climbing because Trump promised over the summer that he’d make the U.S. “the crypto capital world” and replace Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who’s seen as a digital-asset hawk.The Republicans winning back the Senate has also boosted the cryptocurrency. Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.) is expected to become the new chair of the upper chamber’s Banking Committee, and he wants to draft a new regulatory framework that would cut red tape for crypto trading and custody companies.“Bitcoin speculators are betting on a more clement regulatory environment, and have expectations that the authorities may build up a reserve crypto fund, helping lift ongoing demand,” Hargreaves Lansdown’s head of money and markets Susannah Streeter said Monday.Bulls are hopeful that the rally will have enough legs to push Bitcoin’s price past six figures, which would be seen as a significant milestone. Henry Duckworth, CEO of the agricultural-linked trading platform AgriDex, said last week that “it’s inevitable” the token hits $100,000 some time next year.Crypto-related stocks were benefiting from the surge, too. Shares in major exchange Coinbase Global jumped 11.8% on Monday, while trading platform Robinhood Markets rose 8% and Bitcoin holder MicroStrategy was up 10.6%.So-called meme coins have also racked up gains as a sense of post-election euphoria lifts crypto markets. Dogecoin is up 90% over the past five days, while Shiba Inu, another dog-themed cryptocurrency, has climbed 55%.The expectation that Tesla CEO Elon Musk could get a job in the Trump administration has helped to power those tokens higher. Musk has previously joked that he could run a new cost-cutting department called the Department of Government Efficiency, or D.O.G.E.Write to George Glover at [email protected]

A bevy of smaller cryptocurrencies outperformed market-leader Bitcoin in recent days as enthusiasm about the sector’s prospects under President-elect Donald Trump encouraged a wave of speculative bets.