Bitcoin flirts with US$70,000 after US$2.4 billion inflow into ETFs

BITCOIN pushed higher on Monday (Oct 21) as a spurt of inflows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the largest digital asset as well as optimism about the outlook for US regulations lifted sentiment.

The cryptocurrency rose about 1 per cent as of 8.30 am in Singapore to close in on US$70,000, a level last seen in June. Smaller tokens such as second-ranked Ether and top-10 coin Solana also advanced.

US spot-Bitcoin ETFs lured almost US$2.4 billion of net inflows in the six days to Oct 18, data compiled by Bloomberg show, partly on bets that US crypto rules will become friendlier after the Nov 5 presidential election.

Republican candidate Donald Trump is avowedly pro-crypto, so much so that Bitcoin is viewed as a so-called Trump trade. Democratic rival Vice-President Kamala Harris has vowed to support a regulatory framework for the industry. That contrasts with a crackdown on the sector under the Biden administration.

The two key market trends are the elections and the global macroeconomic environment, according to David Lawant, head of research at crypto prime broker FalconX. The Bitcoin options market indicates that “forward implied volatility is heavily clustered around the election day and somewhat subdued leading to it and some time after it”, he wrote in a note.

Bitcoin rallied almost 10 per cent in the seven days to Sunday, the original cryptocurrency’s best weekly performance in more than a month. ETF demand helped the token reach a record high of US$73,798 in March. BLOOMBERG