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Bitcoin has risen above the US$71,000 mark in Asian trading hours after posting a 5% jump over the last 24 hours. This rally has seen a massive trading volume, which implies that over US$143 million in short positions has been liquidated.
The reason for the sudden surge is that whale activity on Binance has gone up. Thus, there have been huge inflows into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ETFs have collectively witnessed an addition of 47,000 BTC in the last fortnight.
Many people consider this event to be a bullish catalyst for the cryptocurrency market during the upcoming US elections. However, regardless of the expectations of who will sit in the White House, the Bitcoin sentiment is still positive.
The price action that recently moved Bitcoin broke its critical resistance at the high of US$70,000. Its trading volume surged to nearly twice the size recorded on Thursday to around US$48 billion.
Data from CoinGlass showed that as short positions liquidated, its losses hit US$73 million for Bitcoin shorts with a US$39 million Ethereum shortfall.
According to QCP Capital co-founder Darius Sit, the market appears to be pricing in more certainty that Donald Trump will win. A belief held by many in the crypto community, which could be a bullish indicator for Bitcoin.
According to analysts, some of the buying pressure is from whales, which are the biggest traders. Whales are quite active on Binance, particularly during Asian trading hours. Their net buying in bulk has been driving the price up.
Bitcoin ETFs are also an area where buying pressure is coming in with a net inflow of 47,000 BTCs over the past fortnight as institutional interest in the asset grows. This has gone hand-in-hand with increased stablecoin liquidity and a rise in Bitcoin transactions.
The trend spread to other cryptos also. Dogecoin (DOGE) is up by 15%. The level of interest for Donald Trump remains high with Shiba Inu (SHIB) going up 8%. Ethereum (ETH) has moved up to 4.9%. Other major coins like Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL) and BNB Chain had more than 3% increments.
The CoinDesk 20, an index keeping track of the largest digital currencies by market capitalisation, was also up by a 3.3 % increment.
Traders are expecting that the November elections in the US may push Bitcoin further, making it reach new highs. Options traders expect Bitcoin to close at US$75,000 by the end of November. There's the highest open interest in options that are set to expire on November 8, concentrated at this strike price.
As the macroeconomic factors and individual traders' sentiments have reacted positively to the market, Bitcoin trends are keeping investors and analysts glued.
If the elections would act as a short-term catalyst for Bitcoin remains to be seen.
