okebet win agent NEW YORK (AP) — Bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time this week as a massive rally in the world's most popular cryptocurrency, largely accelerated by the election of Donald Trump, rolls on. The cryptocurrency officially to rose six figures Wednesday night, just hours after the president-elect said he intends to nominate cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to be the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bitcoin has soared since Trump won the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5. The asset climbed from $69,374 on Election Day, hitting as high as $103,713 Wednesday, according to CoinDesk. And the latest all-time high arrives just two years after bitcoin dropped below $17,000 following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX . Bitcoin fell back below the $100,000 by Thursday afternoon, sitting above $99,000 by 4 p.m. ET. Even amid a massive rally that has more than doubled the value of bitcoin this year, some experts continue to warn of investment risks around the asset, which has quite a volatile history. Here’s what you need to know. Cryptocurrency has been around for a while now. But chances are you’ve heard about it more and more over the last few years. In basic terms, cryptocurrency is digital money. This kind of currency is designed to work through an online network without a central authority — meaning it’s typically not backed by any government or banking institution — and transactions get recorded with technology called a blockchain. Bitcoin is the largest and oldest cryptocurrency, although other assets like ethereum, XRP, tether and dogecoin have also gained popularity over the years. Some investors see cryptocurrency as a “digital alternative” to traditional money, but most daily financial transactions are still conducted using fiat currencies such as the dollar. Also, bitcoin can be very volatile, with its price reliant on larger market conditions. A lot of the recent action has to do with the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Trump, who was once a crypto skeptic, has pledged to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. His campaign accepted donations in cryptocurrency and he courted fans at a bitcoin conference in July. He also launched World Liberty Financial, a new venture with family members to trade cryptocurrencies. On Thursday morning, hours after bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 mark, Trump congratulated “BITCOINERS” on his social media platform Truth Social. He also appeared to take credit for the recent rally, writing, “YOU’RE WELCOME!!!” Top crypto players welcomed Trump’s election victory last month, in hopes that he would be able to push through legislative and regulatory changes that they’ve long lobbied for — which, generally speaking, aim for an increased sense of legitimacy without too much red tape. And the industry has made sizeable investments along the way. Back in August, Public Citizen, a left-leaning consumer rights advocacy nonprofit, reported finding that crypto-sector corporations spent more than $119 million in 2024 to back pro-crypto candidates across federal elections. Trump made his latest pro-crypto move when he announced his plans Wednesday to nominate Atkins to chair the SEC. Atkins was an SEC commissioner during the presidency of George W. Bush. In the years since leaving the agency, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. He joined the Token Alliance, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization, in 2017. Under current chair Gary Gensler, who will step down when Trump takes office, the SEC has cracked down on the crypto industry — penalizing a number of companies for violating securities laws. Gensler has also faced ample criticism from industry players in the process. One crypto-friendly move the SEC did make under Gensler was the approval in January of spot bitcoin ETFs, or exchange trade funds, which allow investors to have a stake in bitcoin without directly buying it. The spot ETFs were the dominant driver of bitcoin's price before Trump's win — but, like much of the crypto’s recent momentum, saw record inflows postelection. Story continues below video Bitcoin surpassing the coveted $100,000 mark has left much of the crypto world buzzing. “What we’re seeing isn’t just a rally — it’s a fundamental transformation of bitcoin’s place in the financial system,” Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of crypto custodian Anchorage Digital, said in a statement — while pointing to the growth of who's entering the market, particularly with rising institutional adoption. Still, others note that the new heights of bitcoin's price don't necessarily mean the asset is going mainstream. The $100,000 level is “merely a psychological factor and ultimately just a number,” Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at British investment company AJ Bell, wrote in a Thursday commentary . That being said, bitcoin could keep climbing to more and more all-time highs, particularly if Trump makes good on his promises for more crypto-friendly regulation once in office. If Trump actually makes a bitcoin reserve, for example, supply changes could also propel the price forward. “It is hard to overstate the magnitude of the change in Washington’s attitude towards crypto post-election,” Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, said via email Thursday, reiterating that prices could keep rising if trends persist. “There is a lot more demand than there is supply, and that’s usually a pretty good recipe for success.” Still, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is never promised. Worldwide regulatory uncertainties and environmental concerns around bitcoin “mining" — the creation of new bitcoin, which consumes a lot of energy — are among factors that analysts like Coatsworth note could hamper future growth. And, as still a relatively young asset with a history of volatility, longer-term adoption has yet to be seen through. Today’s excitement around bitcoin may make many who aren’t already in the space want to get in on the action. For those in a position to invest, Hougan says it's not too late — noting that bitcoin is still early in its development and most institutional investors “still have zero exposure.” At the same time, Hougan and others maintain that it's important to tread cautiously and not bite off more than you can chew. Experts continue to stress caution around getting carried away with crypto “FOMO,” or the fear of missing out, especially for small-pocketed investors. “A lot of people have got rich from the cryptocurrency soaring in value this year, but this high-risk asset isn’t suitable for everyone,” Coatsworth noted Thursday. “It’s volatile, unpredictable and is driven by speculation, none of which makes for a sleep-at-night investment.” In short, history shows you can lose money in crypto as quickly as you’ve made it. Long-term price behavior relies on larger market conditions. Trading continues at all hours, every day. Coatsworth points to recent research from the Bank for International Settlements, a Switzerland-based global organization of central banks, which found that about three-quarters of retail buyers on crypto exchange apps likely lost money on their bitcoin investments between 2015 and 2022. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, bitcoin stood at just over $5,000. Its price climbed to nearly $69,000 by November 2021, during high demand for technology assets, but later crashed during an aggressive series of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. And the late-2022 collapse of FTX significantly undermined confidence in crypto overall, with bitcoin falling below $17,000. Investors began returning in large numbers as inflation started to cool — and gains skyrocketed on the anticipation and then early success of spot ETFs, and again, now the post-election frenzy. But lighter regulation from the coming Trump administration could also mean less guardrails. This story has been corrected to refer to Anchorage Digital as a crypto custodian, not a crypto asset manager.

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Improve regulator-industry engagement, experts urge govtby Susantha Hewa Surely, racism has caused enough damage to us to warrant its erasure from our midst with the condemnation it deserves, without leaving it more room to further flourish in deceptively benign ways. As showcased by the November 14 election results, many Tamils and Muslims, not forgetting Catholics and Hindus, have voted to power the NPP, led by the JVP, which they might have previously labelled, and avoided, as a ‘Sinhalese’ party. This turning of tables has obviously been triggered by the country’s worsening political and economic conditions, but the story should not end there because people’s unprecedented shift of faith strongly indicates the relaxing of the rigid social and cultural postures which may prove to be more important in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. This is because, if used wisely and sensitively, it has the potential to be directed towards the evolution of a society where there wouldn’t be much room for further social fragmentation, hitherto sustained by the biases felt at the deepest levels of our sense of ‘self and other’. Dr. Jehan Perera in his article titled “Reading demands for change” ( The Island, November 19, 2024) says, “Unlike in the case of economic recovery for which there are no short-term panaceas, the solution to the ethnic conflict is one that can be resolved soon as it has been discussed, negotiated and publicised on several occasions, but not implemented due to the failure of leadership”. The government may seize the opportunity to “make hay while the sun shines”. The mercurial nature of ‘identity’ and ‘self’ is well-known. They are a topic of discussion in neuroscience, psychology, humanities, social sciences, religions and, notably, in Buddhism. In humanities and social sciences, ‘identity’ is used to refer to one’s social ‘face’. According to psychology, ‘self’ is a multi-dimensional concept that “includes cognitive and affective judgments about ourselves”. Simply put, it is a social construct and “is shaped by interactions with others, and how a person views themselves in relation to their culture, history, gender, class, and more”. In other words, ‘self’ and ‘identity’ are social constructs; they may not be sufficiently understood as entities independent of the dynamic links between the individual and society. Given the above insights, it is not hard to understand that our collective gut feeling of ‘identity’ has much room for updating and improvement for us to move ahead as a united nation. It’s not difficult to understand that unity is more conducive to social wellbeing than prudish affirmation of our different identities. In particular, Buddhists shouldn’t find it much difficult to understand ‘identity’ as an illusion, because in Buddhism, “The ‘I’ or sense of self is considered an illusion, and is viewed as fluid and ever-changing”. However, many of us Buddhists don’t seem to have taken this illusory nature of self all that seriously. Of course, one may argue, that it is too deep a concept to be grasped by ‘ prthagjana’ (not sufficiently enlightened) people. Perhaps the argument is more expedient than sincere, for it can readily be used to silence those who wantonly accuse us of being wicked. Humour apart, surely, we all have among our acquaintances, those who seem to have understood this concept to the extent that they can view ‘identities’ with more detachment thus contributing to enhance a sense of togetherness, at least in their small circles. And, among them are people of all ethnicities and faiths – Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and even those who refuse to follow any established religion; the late Dr. E.W. Adikaram comes to mind easily. Our tendency to cling to the rigid cast of ‘self and other’ comes from the habit of finding security in our accustomed ‘comfort zones’. That is, we thrive in the feeling of togetherness in small communes. In other words, being immersed in the feeling of belonging to this or that ethnicity, religion, caste, gender, etc., is too appealing and reassuring to be got rid of with the weapons of knowledge, judgement and reason you acquire as you grow up. Such cast-iron ‘identity’ jackets we are proud to wear would do little to help forge a more cohesive society. In all these years, we have had little help from our society, its various institutions, cultures, customs and religions to think in terms of an integrated society, despite all the rhetoric and popularized cosmetic programmes that were made to be soothing to the ear and the eye. The uselessness of all these haphazard and dispersed projects often surfaces when our ‘naturalized’ social instincts begin to assert themselves against wiser counsels. Up to the present, all our political potentates have never lost an opportunity to wax inspirational about ‘unity in diversity’. Their sincerity is in public display today, courtesy their spirited scuffles to enter Parliament through National Lists. Despite their usual bombast on peace building, our past is scattered with loud assertions of our ‘purity of stock’ where political collusion was too apparent to escape notice. We have not forgotten those horror stories about ‘ wanda kottu’, ‘wanda sethkam’ , etc. – all supposedly ‘neutering missions’ that stirred communal disharmony. Had the years of political sermonizing, pontification, programmes, launched with much sound and fury to purportedly promote ethnic cohesion, been able to make us any less susceptible to our ancestral instincts? By the way, how about gender-based discrimination, which most of us are unconcerned about? We have enough academic interest in such fields but not much of it goes to help to subdue the persistent feelings of women who feel being oppressed and discriminated. Of course, it goes without saying that not many religions have addressed the social and cultural oppression of women in a ‘language’ which has made any sufficient dent in our deep-rooted gender biases. As we have seen above, it is the same with other forms of oppression that we have perpetuated and unwittingly fostered at our own peril. Let’s think for a moment about the rumblings felt in some segments of society about their ‘underrepresentation’ in the new government’s power hierarchy. There is no doubt that these are genuine feelings of disaffection coming from their dormant feelings of being subject to discrimination; for example, with regard to Muslim representation and female representation. There is no doubt that it is better for all of us to assuage these deeply felt hurts as they arise in society to create uproar. However, at what level do we have to address them? Surely, not at the highest levels of their visibility and urgency, which has resulted from prolonged neglect. They should be addressed at their most rudimentary levels for us to get rid of these ‘anomalies’. Instead of thinking of quick fixes, as has been the practice in the past, it is time we grasped the nettle. The solution to women’s problems is not to find a few more slots for them in Parliament and other powerful positions, although it would instantly satisfy the disgruntled parties. The underrepresentation of women in privileged positions is just a sign of the basic problem of their culturally imposed subservience in the family. It’s not different from the subjugation of social groups on the basis of hoary divisions shielded to perpetuate power structures in different parts of the world. For examples, women’s subservient state in the family is extolled by platitudes about their unrestricted maternal love, sacrifice, self-denial, abstinence, etc., which indirectly help their subjugation effected by overtly discriminatory means. In trying to expose the wrappings of India’s age-old caste system, Arundhati Roy says, “ it [casteism] has come to be so fused with ... so much that is seen to be kind and good—mysticism, spiritualism, non-violence, tolerance, vegetarianism, Gandhi, yoga, backpackers, the Beatles—that, at least to outsiders, it seems impossible to pry it loose and try to understand it.” As for oppressive systems, casteism is not alone in its capacity for working in complicity with most prevalent forms of human engagement. Can’t we see a similar congruence of seemingly uplifting cultural interventions with regard to deifying ‘motherhood’, which obscures the cultural oppression of women in society. With regard to the current misgivings about underrepresentation in politics attributed to the lack of concern about ethnicity/religion and gender, perhaps easy solutions will be effective in the short term but they are likely to help perpetuate the basic problems crying for a lasting solution. The unsatisfactory visibility of women in higher ranks, in politics or elsewhere, has to be addressed at the roots by taking awareness to the people of the sociocultural character of the issue. Same applies to any unfairness, whether it is perceived by any community – be it concerning the majority or a minority. The political and social context we find ourselves in today is a good opportunity which shouldn’t be left unexploited, if we don’t wish to postpone any further the possibility of ushering in a more friendly society with less unwarranted enmities.

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