As Bitcoin Hits New 2020 Highs, The Course Strikes Comparison With 2016 Election Cycle

Bitcoin (BTC) traded above the key psychological $14,000 mark at press time late Wednesday, gaining over 3.5% in the trailing 24-hour period. The surge comes amid the uncertainty over the winner of the presidential election in the United States.

What Happened: The cryptocurrency has gained 6.6% in a 7-day period leading up press time. 

Other altcoins mostly traded in the green with Ethereum (ETH) gaining 6%, Chainlink (LINK) rising 3.16%, and Litecoin (LTC) going up 3.6% at press time.

Following the trend was XRP, up 0.62%, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) — which rose 0.63% as of press time.

Monero (XMR) was an outlier, down 3.34% over 24 hours.

The bullish movement in Bitcoin is similar to the one seen during the weeks leading up to the 2016 elections when the apex cryptocurrency ran up from $600 levels to $740, a gain of over 20%. Bitcoin has rallied more than 30% from the beginning of October to press time.

Why It Matters: While not much volatility was seen during the election in either 2016 or 2020, big movements in Bitcoin may occur post the declaration of election results, noted Cointelegraph.

In the previous election cycle, Bitcoin price had jumped 3% on the news that President Donald Trump had emerged victorious in the race, according to Fortune.

The jump reportedly came as investors looked for safe havens outside of stocks and bonds, the price of gold had also spiked at the time.

However, some are not convinced that elections and Bitcoin’s upward movement are connected.

“While all eyes are on the election, it’s too early to attribute bitcoin’s gains to it in terms of the macro policy impact from either candidate,” Jason Lau, chief operating officer at cryptocurrency exchange OkCoin, told CoinDesk.

John Kramer, a trader at cryptocurrency market-making company GSR, said, “The asset has done a good job of going its own way all year, vastly outperforming stocks.”

Bitcoin’s year-to-date returns have exceeded 98%, while the S&P500’s were comparatively meager at 6.5%.

Price Action: At press time, Bitcoin traded 3.5% higher at $14,261.01, Ethereum traded 6% higher at $405.02, XRP traded 0.62% higher at $0.24. Bitcoin Cash, Chainlink and Litecoin traded 0.63%, 3.24% and 3.6% higher at $243.97, $10.58, and $55.27 respectively.