Liz Truss stepped down as Britain’s Prime Minister on Thursday after 44 days in office. This has had a very limited impact on stocks and it was considered a non-event for Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 Index registered a gain of 0.27% and the FTSE all-share index moved higher by 0.34%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin fell by 0.2% in the last 24 hours, showing relative stability compared to other assets.
Liz Truss Resigns as Britain’s Prime Minister
There were already rumours about a possible resignation of the now former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A few hours ago, these rumours became a reality and Liz Truss presented her resignation, triggering a fresh leadership election. Despite her resignation, she will remain in office until a new Prime Minister would take her position. At the moment, one of the possible replacers of Liz Truss could be the former chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak.
The official Twitter account of Liz Truss wrote:
“We delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance. We have continued to stand with Ukraine and to protect our own security. And we set out a vision for a low tax, high growth economy – that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.”
We delivered on energy bills and on cutting national insurance.
We have continued to stand with Ukraine and to protect our own security.
And we set out a vision for a low tax, high growth economy – that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit. pic.twitter.com/fi6rtdBRAf
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) October 20, 2022
Another thing that is worth taking into consideration is that Liz Truss leaves at a moment in which the British pound (GBP) hit new record lows against the U.S. dollar (USD). The lowest level hit by the GBP was on September 29th with a price of $1.04 per GBP. This comes at a moment in which most currencies around the world are losing value against the USD. During the same period of time, the EUR fell below parity with the dollar and it couldn’t come back above it.
The cryptocurrency market remained quite stable over the past weeks and in the last few hours. Therefore, Liz Truss resignation does not seem to have had an impact on the crypto market. Among the top ten, Bitcoin lost 0.5% of its value over the last hour. Ethereum registered 1% losses, XRP fell by 0.8%, BNB moved lower by 0.4% and Solana (SOL) is down 1.1% during the same period.
The question is what will happen now in the UK and which will be the direction that the country will take. Moreover, we should also try to understand what could impact the crypto market and how economic decisions could affect Bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
In addition, Liz Truss was a person that showed support for virtual currencies in the past as well. She wrote on Twitter that the UK should welcome cryptocurrencies in a way that would not constrain their potential. She mentioned that back in January 2018 when Bitcoin was close to its high of $20,000.
“Liberate free enterprise areas by removing regulations that restrict prosperity,” she said on Twitter at that time.
