Cryptocurrencies were in the green on Tuesday, with bitcoin briefly topping $70,000 as investors looked forward to results from the U.S. presidential election.
Bitcoin was last higher by nearly 3% at $69,469.37, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose as high as $70,522.84. It is currently 5% off its all-time high, after trading within spitting distance of it last week.
The token tied to Solana gained more than 5%, while payments token XRP rose more than 1%. Memecoins jumped, with dogecoin and Shiba Inu coin soaring 7% and 4%, respectively. Ether was little changed at $2,429.24.
Stocks tied to the price of the cryptocurrency got a boost. Exchange operator Coinbase and MicroStrategy, which often trades as a high beta play on the price of bitcoin, advanced 4% and 2%, respectively.
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The race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump for the next presidency has been called the most important election in the crypto industry's lifetime. Many view a Harris win as a threat to crypto, the extent to which has been debated throughout this election cycle. Trump, on the other hand, is seen by many as a force for good in the industry after he presented himself earlier this year as the pro-crypto candidate and has been courting the industry more directly than Harris has.
Regardless of the eventual winner, bitcoin will likely survive and thrive, according to Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani.
"Bitcoin remains the most resilient within crypto to election outcome," he said. "Bitcoin's primary drivers remain U.S. fiscal indiscipline, record debt levels and monetary expansion, driving up demand for hard assets such as gold and bitcoin. We believe bitcoin, being less than 0.1% of global financial assets, has enough headroom for growth regardless of election outcome."
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Chhugani has a $200,000 price target for bitcoin in 2025, though he said bitcoin could fall to $50,000 in the weeks ahead in the event of a Harris win. He also expects a short-term rally to as high as $90,000 this year in the event of a Trump victory.
Success around bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which have seen more than $23 billion in inflows this year and have $67 billion in assets under management, will continue to accelerate the cryptocurrency's journey, Chhugani added.
But it is the broader market of cryptocurrencies that could have more to risk from this election.
"A constructive crypto friendly SEC would open opportunity for all crypto assets beyond bitcoin," he said. "The key remains a bipartisan support for crypto regulations (the House and Senate outcome matter as well). And … if either side pushes towards a crypto friendly SEC. The Trump side has promised a crypto friendly SEC, while the Harris side has promised to defend ownership of crypto assets, although the crypto community would have preferred more specific crypto policy from Harris."
Increasingly, there has been growing consensus that although Trump could be the more favorable of the two candidates for crypto broadly, a Harris presidency may not be as detrimental as once feared. That fear stems from the hostility crypto experienced under the current administration. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agency under Gary Gensler has become notorious for its refusal to provide clear guidance for crypto businesses keen to operate by the rules, instead opting to regulate by enforcement actions. In addition, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has been vocal about her anticrypto cause.
