On Monday, digital currencies and their concept stocks rose across the board, with Bitcoin and Ethereum rising by at least 6%. Bitcoin rose 6% to $66,233, the highest in two weeks. Ethereum rose 6.8% to $2,635.095, approaching the high of $2,728 on September 27 and the high of $3,019 on August 3. The rest of the top 10 digital currencies also rose across the board.
On the news front, U.S. presidential candidate and current Vice President Harris pledged to support a regulatory framework for digital currencies, which boosted the trend of digital currencies on Monday and added to market optimism that had already emerged during the Asian trading session.
According to a press release: “Vice President Harris knows that more than 20% of African Americans own or have owned cryptocurrency assets, which is why her plan will ensure that owners and investors in digital assets can benefit from a regulatory framework that protects African American men and other groups participating in this market.”
Harris’ latest pledge could be seen as a response to the digital currency industry, which has for years complained that U.S. officials have chosen to regulate through enforcement rather than providing clear regulations.
Earlier in late September, Harris also expressed her support for cryptocurrency investment. She publicly stated that if elected, she would support increasing investment in the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency industries.
At the same time, former US presidential candidate and President Trump is actively courting digital currency voters in the 2024 presidential campaign and has multiple digital currency-related plans.
Analysts believe that the rise of digital currencies was mainly driven by the US election, initially from Trump's lead in the prediction market and polls, and then from Harris' campaign team's semi-supportive remarks on the digital currency market. Although the specific details of Harris' digital currency policy have not yet been seen, it sounds less negative than the Biden administration's attitude.
In the past few days, market forecasts for the US election have flipped, with Trump currently expected to win more than Harris.
The news also showed that the bankrupt Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange last week postponed the deadline for creditor repayment of remaining assets by one year to October 31, 2025, which Arkham Intelligence estimated to be worth about $2.9 billion. The postponement eased concerns about oversupply that creditors might bring about by selling the returned bitcoins.
On Monday, most digital currency-related ETFs and concept stocks also rose. The two-fold long Bitcoin ETF rose by about 9%. Bitcoin miner CleanSpark rose by more than 12%, and miner MARA rose by 5.6%. Digital currency exchange Coinbase rose by 11%. MicroStrategy rose by nearly 16% last Friday and rose again in early trading on Monday, but fell at the close.
Bitcoin had a weak start in October, but has reversed the trend. Over the past decade, October has been a strong month for Bitcoin, with an average gain of 20% this month. Industry insiders pointed out that historical data shows that the seasonal strength of the cryptocurrency market in October is usually concentrated in the second half of the month.
