Bitcoin closed around $67,500 during Asian trading hours on Monday after briefly rising above $68,000 amid positive predictions about the U.S. election.
The broader cryptocurrency market, represented by the CoinDesk 20 index, saw a 1.25% increase.
Some investors see President Biden’s announcement that he will not be a candidate in the upcoming election as a potential positive for the digital asset sector, regardless of the election outcome.
Bitcoin {{BTC}} briefly rose above $68,000 at the start of Asian trading hours on Monday before falling to $67,500. The decline came as bullish sentiment among investors amid a positive outlook for the U.S. election.
The majors rose on BTC’s strength. Ether {{ETH}} briefly surpassed $3,500, Cardano’s ADA and Solana’s SOL rose as much as 5%, while dogecoin {{DOGE}} jumped more than 8% before paring its gains.
The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a liquid index that tracks the largest cryptocurrencies (excluding stablecoins), rose 1.25%.
BTC gains began late Sunday, with incumbent US President Joe Biden saying in an X-post that he will not be running in the upcoming November elections. But that has reduced Republican candidate Donald Trump’s odds on crypto betting app Polymarket to 65% from 71% in the Asian morning hours on Monday morning. Meanwhile, incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris’ odds rose from 16% to 30%.
“Biden’s withdrawal opens up the possibility that the US government will take a more constructive stance toward the digital asset sector after November, regardless of who sits in the White House,” Singapore-based crypto research firm Presto wrote in a note to CoinDesk on Monday.
“It remains to be seen whether Harris or other candidates will pursue such a path, but an option that barely existed before is now available,” Presto added.
Trump’s positive outlook on cryptocurrencies has garnered a lot of support from industry players in recent months. He is scheduled to appear at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville this weekend, a move that has further boosted sentiment among market watchers.
“We would expect the market to rise further given Trump’s core economic policy of lower interest rates and cheaper borrowing costs. This will definitely boost all risk assets, including BTC,” Lucy Hu, senior analyst at Metalpha, wrote in a Telegram message.
“We expect BTC to continue its rise in the medium-to-long term until the 2025 elections,” Hu added.