By Mat Di Salvo
3 min read
Bitcoin has hit an all-time high ahead of a divisive U.S. election on Tuesday and general bullishness surrounding digital assets.
The world's largest crypto rose to $74,504 on the day, beating its previous March all-time high of $73,780, CoinGecko data shows.
Bitcoin is now up more than 9% over the last 24 hours. It has more than doubled in price in the last 12 months.
It comes amid the U.S. election results between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, with the former gaining an early lead in electoral college votes.
Trump or Harris need 270 electoral college votes to secure the presidency. Trump leads with 198 to Harris' 99, according to the latest figures from the Associated Press.
Analysts have been citing a "Trump trade" is in play, which, they say, has helped bolster risk assets, including equities and crypto.
The business mogul and former reality TV star has explicitly said he will help the digital asset industry, while Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has been quieter on the issue.
Trump's renewed shot at claiming a second term in the White House has been keenly felt around the crypto industry, according to VanEck’s head of digital assets research, Matthew Sigel.
"Trump has made material inroads in the last month," he told Decrypt before election day. "Many business leaders are all making phone calls to Donald Trump to mend fences."
"There’s definitely some momentum for Trump, in my opinion," Sigel added.
Previously with Bitcoin cycles, the crypto has hit highs following the asset's quadrennial halving event. This time, it's different, though, and the crypto last hit an all-time high in March, just ahead of April's halving.
Bitcoin's halving happens every four years and cuts miner rewards in half, forcing those who secure the network to work harder and allowing fewer digital coins to be minted and put into circulation.
But Bitcoin's spike earlier this year arguably comes down to the approval of Bitcoin ETFs. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January approved 10 of the vehicles, which make it easy for people to buy shares that track the price of Bitcoin and trade on stock exchanges.
A flood of capital has since entered the space, as traditional investors, previously too cautious about buying the asset, can now do so easily via products by Wall Street titans such as BlackRock and Fidelity.
Such funds have seen more than $20 billion worth of inflows so far this year.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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