Bitcoin has surged to its highest-ever value as Donald Trump edges closer to winning the election.
The price of the cryptocurrency has reached a record $75,100 – £58,000 – on the nose after sitting at just under $70,000, according to Coin Metrics.
It began to increase as Trump took an early lead in the electoral college, even though none of the swing states were yet called.
Bitcoin began to balloon from $69,000 after 12am and has hovered around $74,000 for the last few hours.
But if Kamala Harris were set to sweep the remaining key states, it is expected the price of Bitcoin will plummet down.
Crypto investors have long hoped for a Trump victory that would shoot the price of Bitcoin to dizzying heights.
The Republican leader said over the summer he wants to make the US ‘the crypto capital of the planet’ and started his own crypto business, World Liberty Financial. A massive 180 for the former president given he once called digital currencies ‘scams’.
Ryan Rasmussen, head of research at Bitwise Asset Management, said: ‘The election is having a massive influence on crypto.
‘Expect bitcoin – and crypto more broadly -to be choppy in the days ahead… until we have definitive election results.
‘If Trump wins, I believe we’ll see new all-time highs. If Harris wins, I expect a decent short-term sell-off, with prices taking a month ortwo to recover.’
This year’s presidential election has been called the most important one for the cryptocurrency industry.
From the beginning of his campaign, Trump has presented himself as the pro-crypto candidate.
Meanwhile Harris has approached its use with more caution and has not engaged with the topic as much as Trump has.
So far in this year’s election, the states with the largest electoral votes Kamala Harris has won include New York, California, Massachusetts and Maryland.
She has also won Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and Delaware.
Meanwhile Donald Trump has won a number of states, with the ones with the most amount of electoral votes being Texas, Florida, and Tennessee.
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