Bitcoin surges above $106,000 on strategic reserve hopes

Bitcoin surged to a record high above $106,000 in early Asian trade on Monday.

Bitcoin surged to a record high above $106,000 in early Asian trade on Monday, boosted by comments from President-elect Donald Trumpthat suggested he plans to create a U.S. bitcoin strategic reserve similar to its strategic oil reserve.

Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best known cryptocurrency, hit a high of $106,533 and last traded at $105,688. Smaller crypto Ether rose nearly 3% to 4,014.

"We're in blue sky territory here," said Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG. "The next figure the market will be looking for is $110,000. The pullback that a lot of people were waiting for just didn't happen, because now we've got this news."

"We're gonna do something great with crypto because we don't want China or anybody else - not just China but others are embracing it - and we want to be the head," Trump told CNBC late last week.

When asked if he plans to build a crypto reserve similar to oil reserves, Trump said: "Yeah, I think so."

Other countries have also been considering cryptocurrency strategic reserves.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month questioned the need to hold state reserves in foreign currencies, saying that domestic investment of such reserves was more attractive.