Bitcoin Surges Past $51K Thanks to U.S. Senate Passing $1.9T Covid Relief Bill

At 17:24 UTC on Saturday (March 6), U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Senate Democrats had just managed to get passed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill (“American Rescue Plan”).

Moments later, Bitcoin started rally, and by 14:05 UTC on Sunday (March 7), on crypto exchange Bitstamp, the BTC price had reached $51,306, which is so far today’s intraday high. This means that the Bitcoin price is up 8.02% in the past 24-hour period and up 76.92% in the year-to-date period

According to data by CryptoCompare, currently (i.e. as of 13:40 UTC on March 7), Bitcoin is trading around $50,679, up 6.90% in the past 24-hour period and up 74.92% in the year-to-date period.

Anthony Pompliano (aka “Pomp”), a co-founder of crypto-focused asset management firm Morgan Creek Digital Assets, had this to say about what he thinks will be the effect of this huge fiscal stimulus bill finally getting passed by U.S. Congress:

According to a report by CNBC published yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives, which is also controlled by Democrats, plans to pass this bill on Tuesday (March 9), after which it will be sent to U.S. President Joe Biden, so that he can sign it (before “a March 14 deadline to renew unemployment aid programs”) and make it into law. The report went on to say that this legislation “includes direct payments of up to $1,400 to most Americans, a $300 weekly boost to jobless benefits into September and an expansion of the child tax credit for one year.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the following statement in a press release issued yesterday:

“Today is a day of great progress and promise for the American people, as the Democratic Senate has passed President Biden’s American Rescue Plan to save lives and livelihoods.  The House now hopes to have a bipartisan vote on this life-saving legislation and urges Republicans to join us in recognition of the devastating reality of this vicious virus and economic crisis and of the need for decisive action.

“The American Rescue Plan takes a tremendous step forward to defeat the virus and provide relief to families and small businesses in need.  It honors our heroes – our health care workers, food, sanitation and transportation workers, and teachers – who are on the frontlines on the state and local level.  It crushes the virus with the equitable and immediate distribution of the vaccine.  And it puts our children safely back in school and puts workers back on the job.  Overall, this coronavirus-centric legislation puts nearly a trillion dollars in the pockets of America’s families.“

In other good news, yesterday, during a TV interview, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman suggested that the Indian government may be more open-minded to the idea of “private” cryptocurrencies than had previously been thought (after an anonymous Senior Finance Ministry official told Bloomberg in February that an upcoming new law would ban all cryptoassets).

According to a report by Cointelegraph, Sitharaman said:

“Yes, a lot of negotiations, discussions are happening, with Reserve Bank. Obviously the Reserve Bank will be taking a quorum on how, what kind of unofficial currency, cryptocurrency will have to be planned, and how it has to be regulated. But also, we want to make sure that there’s a window available for all kinds of experiments which will have to take place in the crypto world.“

Featured Image by “makeitsomarketing” via Pixabay.com

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

Source: Read Full Article