Bitcoin Tops $100K For First Time! But What's The Putin Connection?

Bitcoin Crosses $100K: Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency in the world, has breached the landmark price of $1,00,000 for the first time in its history, leading to a strong bull run in the crypto markets.

The cryptocurrency gained as much as 6.59 per cent in the last 24 hours to break past the highly anticipated level after it received support from its newest backer President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Putin On Bitcoin

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticised the practice of holding state reserves in foreign currencies, citing their vulnerability to political confiscation.

"Why accumulate reserves if they can be lost so easily?" said Putin.

He also criticised the United States for undermining the role of the dollar as a global reserve currency by using it for political purposes, a move he said was driving countries toward alternative assets, including cryptocurrencies.

"For instance, Bitcoin—who can prohibit it? No one," Putin remarked, highlighting the inevitability of new payment technologies due to their lower costs and enhanced reliability.

Putin argued that investing such reserves domestically in areas like infrastructure, logistics, science, and education was a more secure and beneficial alternative.

Speaking at an investment conference, Putin pointed to the freezing of approximately $300 billion in Russian reserves by Western countries at the onset of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 as a key example. 

(With Reuters inputs)