Bitcoin holds above $67000 amid Trump win bets, increased institutional market activity

Bitcoin is holding above $67000 (R1173699) after yesterday’s correction after breaching the $69000 level and rising to its highest level since late July. Photo: Reuters

Bitcoin is holding above $67000 (R1173699) after yesterday’s correction after breaching the $69000 level and rising to its highest level since late July. Photo: Reuters

Published 5h ago

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Bitcoin is holding above $67000 (R1173699) after yesterday’s correction after breaching the $69000 level and rising to its highest level since late July, according to Samer Hasn, a senior market analyst at XS.com.

He said yesterday's correction comes after an upward trend that investors are pushing to continue in light of a set of supporting factors, whether from the massive inflows into crypto-investment products or from more bets on Donald Trump winning the White House again.

Cryptocurrency investment products recorded massive inflows last week, reaching $2.2 billion, which represents the highest level since last July, with Bitcoin accounting for most of these flows that went to US spot ETFs, according to CoinShares. Net flows to these funds amounted to more than $294 million yesterday alone, according to SoSo Value.

This comes with two weeks left until the US presidential election. While the Polymarket betting market indicates that Republican candidate Trump is likely to win with a 63% probability, the betting site has sparked controversy over who is behind the significant increase in Trump bets. In contrast to Polymarket’s results, the poll average indicates that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is ahead by 48.2% compared to 46.4% for Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Hasn said this disparity and fluctuation in polls and predictions is likely to keep cryptocurrencies vulnerable to sharp volatility in the coming days, as the identity of the winner of the White House presidency might shape the future of the industry.

However, the futures market is presenting a mixed story and is questioning the sustainability of Bitcoin’s bullish trend. Bitcoin futures open interest regained its record level of more than $40bn yesterday, according to CoinGlass, despite the price correction. This correction only resulted in a very small liquidation of the long positions of about $28 million yesterday.

Of that $40bn, $12.5bn was on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which also represents a new record high for Bitcoin futures on the US’s largest futures exchange. This reflects the increasing involvement of institutional investors in driving price action.

“What is concerning is the decline in the long/short ratio from 1.04 on Sunday to 0.94 today, which may reflect increasing bearish bets in futures market, which in turn may indicate a possible reversal of the bullish trend and a renewal of yesterday’s losses soon,” Hasn said.

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