Bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 milestone on Thursday for the first time since the election of Republican Donald Trump as US president, boosting hopes that his administration would establish a favourable regulatory climate for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin has soared more than doubled in value this year and is up about 45% in the four weeks since Donald Trump clinched a landslide victory in the US presidential election, which also resulted in the election of pro-crypto lawmakers to Congress.

Today's rally in the world's most valued crypto-bitcoin- transpires just a few hours after the US designated president Donald Trump hinted at a lighter regulatory approach to the crypto business by selecting Paul Atkins to be the next Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On Wednesday, Trump expressed his intentions to designate Atkins, a previous SEC commissioner during George W. Bush's presidency. Following his departure from the agency, Atkins has filed lawsuits over excessive market regulation.

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Shoki Omori, Chief of Japan Desk Strategist, Mizuho Securities, told Reuters, "Individual investors must be excited to see the BTC price top $100,000 following the news of Paul Atkins being nominated as SEC chair. Markets knew Gensler would be stepping down and there would be someone who is less aggressive on crypto regulations. Of course, this doesn't mean BTC will rally forever, as there will be moves to take profits."

"I think if BTC were to rally more from here, other crypto majors should catch up a bit first, such as Ethereum. Ethereum looks cheap against Bitcoin. Ripple shot up, but again we saw profit taking at $2.80. Altos look choppy. The crypto community is looking for positive headlines to take crypto prices broadly up even higher. The tailwind from the Trump trade is starting to weaken as markets have a lot of headlines already priced in," he added.

Since Trump emerged victorious in the US election on November 5, Bitcoin has surged and reached unprecedented highs.

On election day, the cryptocurrency reached its highest level of $69,374, but on Wednesday, it jumped dramatically to a record high of $101,512. The rapid rally comes two years after it fell below $17,000 following the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.

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(With Inputs From Agencies)