US Presidential Election Drives Bitcoin Price Back to $70,000

Key Points:

• Bitcoin’s price rose 3% to $70,200, influenced by excitement surrounding the US presidential election.
• The predictions-betting platform Polymarket reports that election-related bets account for $2.1 billion of its $3.3 billion total trading volume.

The US presidential election has, therefore, cast considerable volatility on the cryptocurrency markets, reflected in the prices of Bitcoin.

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Bitcoin Price Skyrockets as US Presidential Election Heats Up

Bitcoin jumped an impressive 3% today, surging to $70,200, amid excitement in the run-up to the election, taking it within 5% of last week’s high.

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas suggested in a post on social media that Bitcoin’s sudden price spike can be directly linked to the ongoing electoral developments. The US presidential election is likely to have a significant short-term impact on sentiment for cryptocurrency, Gautam Chhugani of Bernstein, a leading researcher at the firm, said.

Chugani went ahead to describe what, according to him, might happen to Bitcoin in light of the election result. If Donald Trump wins, then Bitcoin can rise all the way to $80,000-$90,000 until Inauguration Day on January 20th. If Vice President Kamala Harris took the top prize, though, Bitcoin could plummet as low as $50,000 before recovering.

Predictions-Betting Platform Sees Surge in Election-Related Activity

The prospective competition between Harris and Trump has been termed the most consequential election that has ever faced the cryptocurrency industry.

Many in the crypto world have framed a Harris win as a potential threat to the space, and the topic has been among the most talked-about issues throughout the election cycle. Meanwhile, Trump has generally been seen as more positive towards crypto, based on his earlier rhetoric of being a pro-crypto candidate and on his attempts to engage more directly with the industry than Harris.

Predictions-betting platform Polymarket has also signalled that the betting on the election has rallied significant trading volume, with estimates of around $2.1 billion of the $3.3 billion total for the presidential winner contracts attributed to bets for either candidate.

Ironically, despite the fact that domestic users can’t place wagers due to restrictions, Polymarket is paying US-based influencers to promote election betting.