'Buy everything you can,' Bernstein says amid Trump-fueled crypto bull market resurgence

With bitcoin breaking new all-time highs above $80,000 following Donald Trump’s election victory last week, analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein urged investors to add exposure to the crypto industry “as soon as possible.”

“Don’t fight this,” the analysts led by Gautam Chhugani told clients in an explosively bullish note on Monday, “Welcome to the crypto bull market — buy everything you can,” he said.

Chhugani urged any investors that had refrained from crypto exposure due to regulatory concerns to “invert their mental model” after the U.S. election results, pointing to expectations of a crypto-friendly regulatory environment under Trump, starting with a new Securities and Exchange Commission Chair.

Previously skeptical of the industry, Trump laid out a variety of crypto policies during the campaign, including establishing a national bitcoin stockpile and a promise to “end the war on crypto regulation,” the analysts noted. While a new strategic reserve requires legislation and may not materialize until later in 2025, “the direction of travel toward bitcoin becoming a treasury asset, held by corporates, governments and institutions, appears evident to us,” they said.

Aides in Trump’s transition team are also explicitly pro-crypto. VP-elect JD Vance, alongside coalition team members RFK Jr. and Vivek Ramaswamy, has disclosed bitcoin holdings and support for the industry, Chhugani highlighted. Silicon Valley Trump backers, such as a16z and David Sacks, are also crypto advocates, with the industry spending $130 million during the election to support pro-crypto candidates in general and bitcoin exchange-traded fund demand seeing around $4.7 billion worth of inflows in the last few weeks alone, he added.

Earlier on Monday, Greg Cipolaro, the global head of research at vertically integrated bitcoin financial services and infrastructure firm New York Digital Investment Group, said that there is no longer any excuse for investors to shirk exposure to bitcoin following Trump's victory.

Avenues for exposure to crypto

While institutional investors have more limited choices, the analysts identified spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds, pure-play public bitcoin miners like Riot and Core Scientific or AI diversifiers like IREN and CleanSpark, companies such as MicroStrategy with bitcoin corporate treasuries and crypto exchanges like Robinhood and Coinbase as avenues for exposure.

For investors able to buy cryptocurrencies directly, Bernstein recommended a basket of digital assets, including BTC, ETH, SOL, OP, ARB, POL, UNI, AAVE and LINK.

“We remain confident in our $200,000 bitcoin price target by 2025 end. Even at $81K/bitcoin (+ 87% YTD), we believe risk-reward is favorable over next 12 months,” Chhugani said.

Amid the United States’ potential adoption of a bitcoin strategic reserve, in a separate note to clients on Monday, the analysts also urged the government of India — the world’s fifth-largest economy and the largest democracy — to work towards a national bitcoin policy as part of a broader crypto policy.

Bitcoin is currently trading for $82,054, according to The Block’s Bitcoin Price Page, up 3% over the past 24 hours, 19% in the last week and 94% year-to-date. Meanwhile, the GMCI 30 index, which represents a selection of the top 30 cryptocurrencies, is up 2.3% over the past day to 152.85, gaining 28% in the last week and around 54% in 2024.

Gautam Chhugani maintains long positions in various cryptocurrencies. Bernstein and its affiliates may receive compensation for investment banking services from MicroStrategy. Certain affiliates of Bernstein act as market makers or liquidity providers in the debt securities of Riot Platforms and the equities securities of Robinhood.