Trump dump: Crypto liquidations hit $350M as Bitcoin drops below $69K

Crypto market liquidations almost hit $350 million as Bitcoin briefly dipped below $69,000, with traders seeming jittery in the lead-up to the United States presidential election on Nov. 5. In all, $349.8 million was liquidated across $259.7 million long bets and $90.1 million short bets on Nov. 3, according to CoinGlass. It was the biggest day of liquidations since Oct. 25, when Bitcoin BTC$68,849 failed to sustain a rally past $70,000. Bitcoin has seen wide price swings over the past seven days, starting on Oct. 28 at around $67,700, then reaching a high of almost $73,300 on Oct. 29 before dropping over the next few days to a low of $67,719 on Nov. 3. It quickly recovered and is now trading at $69,145, per CoinGecko.

Bitcoin’s rollercoaster price action comes as the odds gap between US presidential bidders Donald Trump and Kamala Harris has tightened on the crypto native betting platform Polymarket. In early October, Trump overtook Harris on Polymarket as the likely winner, with his odds of winning peaking at 67% on Oct. 30. That’s now seen a sharp correction to 56%.

The crypto industry views the Republican presidential candidate as the friendlier option as Trump has promised — among other pledges — to fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and make the US “the world capital of crypto.” Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s Harris has taken a more tempered approach to crypto, saying she’d support a regulatory framework for the space in her pitch to Black male voters. Trump’s winning odds on Polymarket now more closely align with polling data, which shows that he’s essentially neck and neck with Harris — who had a 0.9 percentage point lead on Nov. 3, FiveThirtyEight data shows.

Some traders have speculated that Bitcoin could hit $100,000 if Trump wins the election, while Bernstein analysts have said a Harris win could send Bitcoin’s price down significantly by year-end. In the immediate aftermath of the election, crypto trader Daan Crypto Trades predicted Bitcoin could see “at least a 10% move to either direction depending on who ends up winning the election.”