Bitcoin breaks above $77,000 for first time as VanEck CEO sees $300,000 potential

It's hard to say if there's any connection, but right around the time VanEck CEO Jan Van Eck was on CNBC saying bitcoin would hit a new all-time high on Friday, BTC did just that, temporarily surpassing $77,000 for the first time.

"Bitcoin's going to hit all-time highs—hit them today and I think it's going further," Van Eck said when asked if he thought BTC is headed to $100,000. "My basic premise is ultimately bitcoin's value will be half of that of all the gold outstanding so you're talking about something like $300,000 for bitcoin."

Van Eck didn't give specific reasons for his "half of...all the gold outstanding" theory but said he thought it was a "reasonable base assumption." Pumping up bitcoin's prospects is in Van Eck's interests as his firm offers investors a spot bitcoin ETF. "Individual investors have really piled into the bitcoin ETFs," Van Eck also said in the interview.

On Friday afternoon, bitcoin's price shot up, briefly eclipsing $77,200 before then falling to $76,761.63 as of 4:05 p.m. ET, according to The Block Price Page.

Broadly, the crypto market has been on the uptick since Donald Trump, who has been viewed in recent months as a champion for digital assets, was elected U.S. president earlier this week. Analysts at Wall Street powerhouse JPMorgan predict bitcoin will perform well under a Trump administration, benefitting from the potential weakening of the U.S. dollar, which tends to incentivize investors to buy assets like gold and bitcoin, seen as stores of value.

Since Tuesday's presidential election, Bitcoin was up nearly $10,000, or roughly 15%. BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF, the largest by market cap, has been enjoying heavy trading and inflow volume since Trump's victory.