(Bloomberg) — Bitcoin climbed to the highest level in two weeks with Vice President Kamala Harris pledging to support a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.
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The promise added to optimism seen during Asian trading hours that a mixed reaction to China’s latest stimulus will embolden speculators to chase after cryptocurrencies rather than the nation’s stocks.
The largest digital asset rose as much as 5.6% on Monday before paring some of the increase to change hands at $65,585 as of 2:04 p.m. in New York. Smaller tokens including second-ranked Ether and top-10 coin Solana advanced too.
The pledge by Harris to support a framework follows years of complaints by crypto industry officials that US officials have chosen a path of regulation through enforcement rather than providing clarity. Former President Donald Trump has actively sought crypto voters during the current presidential race and has several crypto-related endeavors.
“The bump is largely election-driven, initially from Trump’s lead in both prediction markets and polls, and later from semi-supportive statements re. crypto markets from the Harris campaign,” said Noelle Acheson, author of the Crypto Is Macro Now newsletter. “I haven’t seen detail yet on the Harris crypto policy, but it’s sounding less negative than Biden’s administration.”
Prediction markets have flipped in the past few days, assigning Trump higher odds of victory than Harris.
Shares of Bitcoin-related companies also rallied with digital exchange Coinbase jumping around 9% and miner MARA Holdings gaining 5%. Bitcoin proxy MicroStrategy was little changed after surging 16% on Friday.
Meanwhile, the bankrupt Mt. Gox crypto exchange last week pushed back by a year to Oct. 31, 2025 the creditor repayment deadline for its remaining assets, which Arkham Intelligence estimates at about $2.9 billion. The delay eases concerns of a supply overhang from creditors looking to sell returned Bitcoin.
“The recent improvement in Trump polling will amplify the market’s receptiveness and the positive price impact of good news,” said Benjamin Celermajer, co-chief investment officer at Magnet Capital. “Good news such as the Mt. Gox delayed repayment plan will be received more positively.”
Bitcoin is now higher for October after a weak start to a month that delivered an average 20% climb in the past decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Historical data suggests that October’s seasonal strength in crypto markets is typically weighted toward the latter half of the month,” Sean Farrell, head of digital-asset strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC, wrote in a note.
China is striving to revive its economy but a highly anticipated weekend policy briefing failed to specify exactly how much fiscal stimulus the government plans to inject. Economists are unconvinced that officials are doing enough to defeat deflation, and a world-beating rally in Chinese equities has begun to fray.
“Markets are probably taking a disappointing China stimulus to be positive news for Bitcoin, as capital rotation from Bitcoin into Chinese equities was understood to be previously weighing on crypto prices,” said Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, a provider of liquidity for trading in digital-asset derivatives.
–With assistance from Sunil Jagtiani.
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