Bitcoin prices will soar 59% to $90,000 by the end of the year if Donald Trump wins election, Wall Street analyst says

• Bitcoin could see massive gains if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election, according to Bernstein.
• Trump's growing support for crypto suggests a friendlier regulatory environment than Harris, the firm said.

Owning bitcoin may be the latest example of a "Trump trade" that could lead to massive gains if the former president returns to the White House next year.

Analysts at Bernstein said in a note on Monday that Donald Trump's recent embrace of the crypto industry suggests that a potential Trump administration would be much more friendly to the digital assets than a Harris administration.

"Crypto is the rare instance, where the difference in election outcome could determine the destiny of the industry," Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani said.

Trump's growing friendliness toward the crypto industry has been a yearslong progression.

Trump addressed the Bitcoin Conference in July with a 45-minute speech, and has talked about crypto policy in nearly every speech since. He's also released several NFT collections over the past two years.

At the Bitcoin Conference, Trump said he'd lay out a plan "to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the bitcoin superpower of the world."

Chhugani predicted that bitcoin could soar to new highs later this year if Trump wins the election, with the cryptocurrency potentially trading in a range of $80,000-$90,000 by December.

That represents potential upside of as much as 59% based on current levels of $56,539 at 2:04 p.m. Bitcoin peaked at just under $74,000 in March.

As for why there's so much upside potential for bitcoin if Trump wins in November, Chhugani argued that a positive regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies is not yet priced in to the market.

"With strong regulatory challenges, decentralised finance did not see participation from institutions and banks, to build blockchain based financial products," Chhugani explained.

He added: "A positive regulatory environment would take away the policy risk for financial institutions and banks to participate, thus removing the handicap for digital assets to compete with traditional assets for institutional flows."

According to the note, easing crypto regulations could spur innovation in the sector and bring back users to the ecosystem.

Bitcoin might be front-running a potential Trump win in November, with the cryptocurrency up 34% year-to-date.

"Elections remain hard to call, but if you are long crypto here, you are likely taking a Trump trade," Chhugani concluded.