Bitcoin approached $70,000 for the first time since early June, driven by recent political developments. The surge followed a speech by Republican candidate Donald Trump, who promised to make Bitcoin a national strategic asset if elected in November.
In Asian afternoon trading, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) stood out with significant gains, despite predictions that it would struggle with the Mt. Gox trade. BCH rose over 10%, outperforming the broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, which increased by 3.6%.
Trump’s speech on Saturday highlighted his plans to fire SEC Chair Gensler, establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and prevent U.S. Bitcoin sales. He envisions Bitcoin potentially rivaling gold and becoming as pivotal as the steel industry was a century ago.
Bitcoin (BTC) saw a 3% rise, trading above $69,500. Ether (ETH) increased by 4%, trading above $3,300. The price climb led to the liquidation of $13.8 million in BTC short bets and $11.4 million in ETH shorts, according to CoinGlass data.
The market also saw notable gains from new players. BRETT, a memecoin on the Base blockchain, led the crypto market with an 11% rise in the last 24 hours. BRETT is part of a meme trend alongside POPCAT, which rose 7%.
Bitcoin Cash outperformed the CoinDesk 20 index despite initial concerns that the Mt. Gox token distributions might flood the market with BCH. Analysts had feared that these distributions would disproportionately affect BCH, but those concerns proved unfounded.
On the other hand, Trump-themed tokens lagged behind. The MAGA (TRUMP) token fell 6% in one day and 18% over the past week. TREMP remained flat, down 0.3% in the last 24 hours and nearly 10% over the week. Meanwhile, Solana’s SOL saw a 6% rise and BNB Chain’s BNB, ether (ETH), and XRP experienced gains of 2-5%.
