Bitcoin broke $100,000 around 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time and continued to rise Wednesday evening, trading at around $103,600 before giving back some of those gains. Bitcoin was trading at around $103,000 as of midnight EST.

Crypto markets are notoriously volatile and unlike the stock market, it is difficult to pinpoint an accurate price as there are slight differences between different exchanges. On Wednesday evening, Bitcoin traded above $100,000 across all exchanges, while other cryptocurrencies also surged.

The price of so-called altcoins also skyrocketed, with tokens for blockchains such as Ethereum and Dogecoin gaining around 7%. However, unlike previous phases of the cryptocurrency, the Bitcoin rally has not pushed all coins higher.

Solana, Ethereum’s main competitor, remained largely unchanged. Meanwhile, XRP tokens linked to blockchain company Ripple fell by around 10% – but the drop came after XRP rose a remarkable around 65% in the last week.

Bitcoin’s new record high came on the same day that President-elect Donald Trump announced that he had appointed Paul Atkins, a libertarian and former regulator, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission. The crypto market reacted with joy to Atkins’ proposed appointment. Atkins is expected to succeed current SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, an acolyte of progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren who is staunchly opposed to cryptocurrencies and widely despised by blockchain executives and many in the broader financial world for his aggressive regulatory strategy.

In general, the crypto market has risen thanks to the huge popularity of new ETFs from companies like BlackRock and Fidelity, which offered conservative investors the opportunity to buy Bitcoin in the form of stocks.

Bitcoin’s latest all-time high comes amid a new crypto bull market that gained steam earlier this year when Bitcoin traded for around $42,000.

The current price frenzy comes at a time when crypto is in the midst of its fourth major bull cycle. Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency – was launched in 2009 and traded for pennies in its early years before seeing its first major breakthrough in 2013, breaking the $1,000 mark. In the following boom phases, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of just under $20,000 in 2017 and a new high of around $65,000 in 2021.