Bitcoin jumps above $71k as markets await US election results
2024-11-06

Bitcoin briefly rallied over 3% over the last hour reaching as high as $71,500 as markets respond to Donald Trump’s early lead in the United States election. 
The price of Bitcoin has since retraced slightly to $71,309 at the time of publication, according to TradingView data. 
Memecoins Dogecoin DOGEUSD and Shiba Inu SHIBUSD and Solana SOLUSD increased 1.9% and 2.6% too, CoinGecko data shows.
The rally comes as Republican candidate Donald Trump currently leads Democratic candidate Kamala Harris 95 to 35 in electoral college votes, according to election data from the Associated Press. 
Crypto assets have shown heightened volatility amid the election, with Bitcoin BTCUSD falling 2.4% to a local low of $68,755 at 8:00 pm UTC.
DOGE and SHIB also experienced some downward volatility during that period but are still up 11.2% and 8.5% over the last 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows.
DOGE’s rally came as billionaire Elon Musk continued his campaign of support for Republican candidate Donald Trump and the memecoin’s ties to Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” movement — aimed at cutting government spending that Trump and Musk consider wasteful.
Several market pundits have predicted that market volatility will peak sharply following the election being called, which Bitfinex analysts could either “fuel big moves” or result in a “much deeper correction” for Bitcoin’s price action. 
One trader said he expects the price of Bitcoin to swing “at least” 10% in either direction once the election is called.
Bitcoin’s volatility index — a score of BTC’s forward-looking volatility — notched a new three-month high of 65.7 on Nov. 3 but has since stumbled to 63.8 at the time of publication, data from crypto derivatives exchange Deribit shows.
The vote count has already begun in eight states, with Trump currently leading Harris 23 to 3 in electoral college votes. 
The first polls close on Nov. 5 at 11:00 am UTC.
The outcome of the US election could be announced anywhere from hours after polls close to several days later — as narrow margins of victory in swing states may require recounts.
Volatility could be exacerbated by the US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Nov. 7, with current forecasts projecting a 94.1% chance that interest rates will be cut by another 25 basis points.