Bitcoin (BTC-USD) regained ground this week, and is expected to see a 15.9% jump on a weekly basis, as it touched the $66K mark.
The cryptocurrency climbed strongly on Monday, following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday. With the shooting, the odds of him winning the U.S. presidential election in November surged.
“The rebound in Bitcoin price shows the market has a more optimistic outlook in the near-term macro environment. The market was encouraged by Trump’s vice president pick, which indicates a more crypto-friendly administration and policies,” Lucy Hu, Senior Analyst, Metalpha, said.
Trump selected Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate. Vance is widely known to be an advocate for cryptocurrencies.
BTC extended its gain to Tuesday, as it went just above $65K, before retreating below that mark on Wednesday. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency went below $64K on Thursday, a day on which Nasdaq and S&P 500 also witnessed an extended a sell-off, as investors continued to rotate out of technology stocks.
The sell-off also came amid rising speculations of Joe Biden’s candidacy in the U.S. presidential elections.
With Trump’s popularity rising, Biden is losing the support of senior Democrats amid concerns over his ability to win the presidential election in November.
BTC could also stand to benefit with the rising chances of Trump winning the election, as the former president believes the top cryptocurrency and other cryptos should be made in the U.S. “If we don’t do it, China is going to figure it out – or somebody else.”
“We think BTC could hover around the MA120 which is around 65k in the short term, the price may have the momentum to go up to 68k or even 70k, but we need to continue to monitor closely the Fed policies and implications of Mt Gox,” Hu added.
Notable News
- State Street (STT) is exploring developing its own stablecoin as the financial services and banking behemoth seeks to get more involved in settling blockchain-based payments.
- B. Riley Securities upgraded Core Scientific (CORZ) shares to Buy from Neutral in a recent note as analyst Lucas Pipes thinks the Bitcoin (BTC-USD) miner will be a future leader in high-performance computing hosting.
- Exchange-traded funds investing directly in Ether (ETH-USD) likely will start trading on July 23, according to a media report dated earlier in the week.
- BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said he has changed from being a “proud skeptic” of Bitcoin (BTC-USD) to someone who sees the cryptocurrency as having a place in people’s portfolios.
Bitcoin, Ether prices
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) rose 5.1% to $66.8K at 3:09 pm on Friday, on a day when users across the world faced a major Microsoft (MSFT) outage, which hit backend operations at multiple industry sectors. Ether (ETH-USD) increased ~2.9% to $3.5K.
“Bitcoin’s correction has frustrated bulls for four months, but as long as it holds above $50,600, new all-time highs are expected,” SA analyst Ryan Wilday said.
“Bitcoin has shown a surprising reversal, potentially heading towards $88K, but caution is advised until a confirmed setup is in place,” Wilday added.
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