Investing.com – Bitcoin rose on Wednesday, holding near a 2.5-month high on hopes that the 2024 U.S. election will bring friendlier regulation, while improving capital inflows also pushed prices higher.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency appeared to have breached the $50,000 to $65,000 trading range seen for most of the year and is now about $7,000 away from setting up-to-date record highs.
The mood was also improved earlier this week by the now-defunct Mt Gox exchange, which extended its schedule for returning stolen tokens to creditors.
rose 2.3% to $67,099.1 by 01:22 ET (05:22 GMT).
Bitcoin Driven by US Regulatory Hopes
Sentiment towards cryptocurrencies improved this week after Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris promised to create a specific regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, although she did not provide details.
Harris’ declaration signaled a cryptocurrency-friendly stance by both frontrunners to become the next US president, with Republican candidate Donald Trump maintaining a largely pro-crypto stance in the last campaign.
Trump’s World Liberty Financial crypto project launched this week, and reports say it has raised at least $220 million in token sales.
Recent polls have also shown that Trump has regained some advantage over Harris, encouraging bets that a Trump presidency will better serve crypto interests.
Still, polls point to a tight presidential race, with about three weeks left until the vote.
Crypto investment products are seeing weekly inflows
Data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed that crypto products saw an inflow of $407 million in the week to October 13, most of which was directed toward Bitcoin. This followed moderate asset outflows in the previous week.
CoinShares said the inflow of funds was fueled by increased speculation about Trump’s potential 2024 election victory, which helped cryptocurrency markets weather recent changes in U.S. interest rate expectations.
Cryptocurrency price today: altcoins less cheerful than Bitcoin
Broader cryptocurrency prices were mixed, with major altcoins largely lagging Bitcoin. The world’s No. 2 cryptocurrency rose 0.8% to $2,616.78.
and decreased in the range of 1% to 1.5%, but decreased slightly.
Among meme tokens, it rose 1.4%.
