Bitcoin has surged over 8% this week, coming within a few dollars of its record high on Tuesday. The original cryptocurrency pushed past $73,000 before paring gains on Wednesday as the crypto industry prices in a win for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Crypto bulls predict Bitcoin will reach a new all-time high, previously set in March, within the days leading up the election. After rising over $2,000 within a few hours, the price of Bitcoin fell slightly and continues to oscillate between $71,000 and $73,000. The currency has grown 12% throughout “Uptober”—a nickname coined for Bitcoin's historically lucrative month.
The broader crypto market is following a similar trend this week with Ethereum and Solana growing 4% and 5%, respectively. Dogecoin—the memecoin typically associated with Elon Musk—has advanced 23%, lifted by the billionaire’s mention of the coin at multiple Trump rallies.
Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw strong inflows coinciding with Bitcoin’s bump on Tuesday. The ETFs pulled in $870 million amid pre-election market volatility, the third-largest inflows since their approval in January. Bitcoin reached its all-time high of over $73,000 in March following the introduction of these Bitcoin ETFs to the market.
The run comes as Trump widens his lead against Vice President Harris on Polymarket, a crypto prediction market. With the election less than a week away, Polymarket bettors give Trump a 67% chance of winning the election, while traditional polls have the two in a dead heat—though new evidence shows a good portion of the trading on the site is fake.
Both candidates are in the final stretch of their campaigns, making a final push to court undecided voters and encourage supporters to head to the polls. On Sunday, Trump held a rally at Madison Square Garden at which Elon Musk talked about his involvement in Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency, or D.O.G.E.—a nod to to Dogecoin.
Trump has made a substantial effort to appeal to the crypto industry this election cycle, promising to make America “the crypto capital of the planet.” He has launched his own crypto venture, spoke at this year’s Bitcoin conference in Nashville, and vowed to fire SEC chair Gary Gensler on day one, among other things.
While Harris has taken a more tempered pro-crypto stance than President Biden, some analysts predict that the price of Bitcoin could crash with a Harris victory. CEO of Transform Ventures and crypto millionaire Michael Terpin, says the currency will continue to grow either way.
“There's just too much momentum right now,” Terpin told Fortune. “We're at the point of the cycle where it usually does go up quite a bit. I just think that Trump winning would make it quicker and faster and higher.”
