Bitcoin Falls 1.5% to Lowest Level in More Than a Month Ahead of U.S. Election
Key Facts
Bitcoin fell 1.5% to $76,931.9 by 09:30 GMT on November 3, its lowest level since early September, according to a Reuters report published via Investing.com. The move came on U.S. general election day, as traders weighed the impact of the results on the regulatory direction for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin had lost more than 6% in October, putting the session’s decline in the context of weakness that had carried over from the previous month. Pressure was not limited to the largest cryptocurrency; major alternative coins also fell. The report said investors were avoiding cryptocurrencies amid uncertainty over regulation of the sector after the election.
Ethereum fell 1.2% to $2,264, while Solana dropped 2.3%, Cardano 1.8% and BNB 1.6%, according to the report. XRP was relatively steady. The report attributed traders’ caution to concerns that the midterm election results could set the sector’s regulatory agenda for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. It said uncertainty over the regulatory outlook after the vote had prompted traders to steer clear of cryptocurrencies. Market pressure thus coincided with political uncertainty over the sector’s rules, without the vote itself settling those questions on election day.
The report added that a broader sell-off in technology stocks weighed on cryptocurrencies, as risk appetite weakened and investors worried about heavy spending on artificial intelligence. Bitcoin also came under pressure from sharp outflows from spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds on Monday, Reuters said. The report linked institutional investors’ response to those flows with the Binance hack, while the platform said in its initial update that it had found no evidence of private wallet keys being leaked. Binance said on October 30 that its preliminary investigation pointed to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer as a possible cause. The platform estimated losses from the incident involving its hot wallets at about $6.3 billion in token assets, after the hack occurred at around 20:05 UTC on October 29.
In an update issued on November 1, Binance said it had covered about 95% of the affected amount, up from about 90% in its previous update. It said withdrawals would resume in stages, with the gradual rollout subject to stability and security checks. The first phase, it said, would include the ZEC network. The platform’s update alone, however, does not establish that the hack caused the currency moves cited in the market report; the report only linked Bitcoin’s pressure to fund flows and institutional investors’ stance toward the incident. U.S. JOLTS job openings data for September are scheduled for release on November 3 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, while October data will be released on December 1.
The election result remains an important political factor for markets. The U.S. general election includes votes for Congress, and the Associated Press said Tuesday’s result could reshape President Donald Trump’s final two years in the White House. Control of the House requires reaching 218 seats, while 219 members were aligned with Republicans when the agency’s report was published on November 3. It could take days to declare a winner: in the 2022 election, the agency called control of the Senate after four days and the House after eight days from election day. In broader markets, S&P 500 futures fell 0.3% and Dow Jones futures fell 0.6% on November 3. Monday’s session had seen the S&P 500 fall 0.5% after erasing an earlier gain of 1.1%.