Bitcoin surged to a two-week high on Monday following the attempted assassination of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. The incident, which occurred at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, has raised the odds of the former president, a self-proclaimed champion of cryptocurrency, winning the upcoming election.
Trump, who was shot in the ear during the attack, assured his supporters that he was doing well. His campaign stated that the former president is in good health. The attack has seemingly bolstered his chances of reclaiming the White House, with trades betting on his victory expected to increase this week.
Bitcoin saw a significant rise of 8.6%, reaching $62,508 and touching a two-week high of $62,698 earlier in the session. This surge has taken its year-to-date gains to 47%. Similarly, Ether also experienced a boost, rising 6.8% to $3,322.
Trump, running against Democratic President Joe Biden in the November U.S. election, has criticized Democratic efforts to regulate the crypto sector. At a fundraiser in San Francisco in June, Trump positioned himself as a pro-crypto candidate, although he has yet to provide specific details on his proposed crypto policies.
“He’s certainly positioned himself as pro-crypto and as the odds of his reelection were galvanized by the shooting on the weekend, it’s certainly put a big boost underneath the bid in crypto markets and Bitcoin obviously, just an absolute standout,” said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG.
Trump is scheduled to speak at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 27, according to the organizers of the event.
Bitcoin had a robust start to the year, propelled by the launch of exchange-traded funds in the U.S., which drove it to a record high of $73,803.25 in mid-March. However, the cryptocurrency has faced challenges since then, dropping to a four-month low in early July as traders worried about the potential dumping of tokens from the defunct Japanese exchange Mt. Gox.
“We had four weeks of declines on the back of the Mt. Gox news … but the rebound, it looks to me like it’s got further to go and I wouldn’t be surprised seeing it head back up towards, at least towards $65,000 by the end of this week,” said Sycamore.
As the crypto market reacts to political developments and investor sentiment, all eyes will be on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to see how they perform in the coming days.
