The price of Bitcoin (BTC) now trades at an all-time high against the Canadian dollar roughly seventeen months after the nation’s leader slammed digital currencies as an “irresponsible” investment.
The asset soared to over $91,500 CAD when the stock market opened on Monday, shattering its previous record of $86,954 established on November 10, 2021. Ten months later, a slew of high-profile corporate crypto failures sent BTC crashing back to $26,000 CAD, which made a great headline for its political detractors.
Bitcoin Is Back In Canada
“Telling people they can opt out of inflation by investing their savings in volatile cryptocurrencies is not responsible leadership,” said Justin Trudeau at the time, while criticizing his political opposition. “By the way, anyone who followed that advice would have seen their life savings destroyed.”
The market has lost faith in the Canadian dollar. @MarcPatrone
Perhaps Blackface Trudeau should have thought about monetary policy and not unlawfully frozen all our bank accounts. #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/Ld7nBgwgs6
— BJDichter Handy Scapegoat HonkingForFreedom.com (@BJdichter) March 4, 2024
His target, Pierre Poilievre, was then the newly elected leader of Canada’s Conservative Party. During his leadership race, Poilievre catered to Bitcoiners and promoted the asset as a potential inflation hedge, which his opponents across the aisle criticized him for as the coin’s price sunk back to 2017 levels later that year.
Today, Polievre’s Conservatives are dominating Trudeau’s Liberals in national polling, with multiple surveys projecting a landslide majority win for the Tories if Canada held an election today.
Bitcoin merged well with Poilievre’s anti-inflation-focused campaign, for which he blamed Trudeau for reckless government spending and irresponsible monetary policy. In fact, despite the US dollar’s own inflationary woes, the Canadian dollar has fallen against the former from $1.25 to $1.35 apiece since November 2021.
The discrepancy is noticeable in each currency’s respective Bitcoin exchange rate. Unlike with CAD, Bitcoin’s USD price is still narrowly shy of breaking its all-time high, reaching $67,900 on Monday, compared to $69,000 in 2021.
Bitcoin’s Early Rise
Historically speaking, Bitcoin’s price over the past several months has surged far faster than its traditional 4-year cycle would suggest. Normally, new highs aren’t registered until well after Bitcoin’s 4-year “halving” event – though this time, the halving is still over one month away.
Bitcoin spot ETFs in the United States have been a major driver for new demand, absorbing a net average of over $180 million per day since launching on January 11. Some reports have suggested that the supply of Bitcoin on OTC desks from which the ETFs purchase coins is quickly dwindling.
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