06:20 AM EDT, 07/29/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Bitcoin opened the week with its highest price since June after Donald Trump said Saturday that he would make the US the world leader in cryptocurrency.

The biggest cryptocurrency rose up to 3% on Monday at $69,500 as of 6:00 a.m. ET. Ethereum, the second largest digital asset, also went up by as much as 4.8% and meme token Dogecoin rose 2.8%.

"If we don't embrace crypto and bitcoin technology, China will, other countries will. They'll dominate, and we cannot let China dominate. They are making too much progress as it is," Trump was quoted saying at a bitcoin conference in a Reuters report.

Trump said he would set up a presidential advisory team for crypto and create a national "stockpile" of bitcoin using cryptocurrency that the US government owns, most of which were seized in criminal cases, according to media reports.