Bitcoin hit an all-time high ahead of Tuesday's divisive US election and the general frenzy surrounding digital assets.
The world's largest crypto rose to $74,504 on the day, beating the all-time high of $73,780 set last March, CoinGecko data shows.
Bitcoin is now up more than 9% in the last 24 hours. Prices have more than doubled in the last 12 months.
The US election results are between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, with the former taking an early lead in the Electoral College vote.
Trump or Harris need 270 Electoral College votes to secure the presidency. Trump leads with 198 to Harris' 99, according to the latest figures from the Associated Press.
Analysts point out that “Trump business” is at play, which, they say, has helped strengthen risk assets, including equities and crypto.
While the business mogul and former reality TV star has made it clear that he supports the digital asset industry, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has remained silent on the matter.
Trump's renewed shot at claiming a second term in the White House has been widely felt around the crypto industry, said VanEck's head of digital assets research, Matthew Siegel.
“Trump has gotten materialized in the last month,” he told Decrypt before Election Day. “Many business leaders are calling Donald Trump to mend fences.”
“In my opinion, there's definitely some motivation for Trump,” Siegel added.
In previous Bitcoin cycles, the crypto has peaked following the asset's four-year stripping event. This time, it's different, though, and the crypto last peaked in March, just before mid-April.
It halves bitcoin every four years and halves mining rewards, allowing those who maintain the network to work harder and fewer digital coins to be produced and put into circulation.
But Bitcoin's growth earlier this year comes on the heels of the approval of Bitcoin ETFs. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 10 of the vehicles in January, which will make it easier for people to track the price of Bitcoin to buy stocks and trade them on stock exchanges.
A flood of capital has flowed into the space, as traditional investors who were previously wary of buying the property can now do so more easily through Wall Street titans like BlackRock and Fidelity.
Such funds have seen more than $20 billion in revenue this year.
Edited by Andrew Hayward.
Daily Debrief Newspaper
Start every day with top news stories, plus original features, podcasts, videos and more.
