Bitcoin’s price surged to $64,000 as the possibility of Joe Biden withdrawing from the race for U.S. president grew. This news came after a slight retreat from $65,000 on Thursday. The crypto market has been closely monitoring the political landscape, as a second term for Donald Trump is seen as more favorable for the industry. With Biden’s performance in the campaign under scrutiny and concerns about an assassination attempt on the Republican nominee, BTC briefly reached $66,000 earlier this week. However, the increasing likelihood of Biden stepping back from the race has tempered traders’ sentiment, leading to a slight drop in BTC’s price by about 0.9% in the last 24 hours.
In addition to the political developments, Indian crypto exchange WazirX faced a significant hack by a North Korea-linked attacker. This led to Bitcoin and shiba inu trading at substantial discounts on the platform. The BTC/INR pair dropped by 22% within 24 hours, while the SHIB/INR pair lost 30%. WazirX’s native token, WRX, also took a hit, falling by 40% since the attack. The hacker reportedly converted most of the stolen funds into ether, holding over 59,097 ETH, worth around $200 million at current prices, along with $15 million in other tokens.
Meanwhile, amidst a global internet outage linked to a Crowdstrike software update causing the Microsoft “Blue Screen of Death” error, numerous crypto tokens themed after CrowdStrike and the error itself were issued on Ethereum and Solana. Despite the widespread Windows system errors affecting various sectors, no crypto-related companies reported any service disruptions. This incident highlights the unique behavior of crypto market participants who create tokens to capitalize on trending news narratives.
Looking at the market trends, Bitcoin has been trading in a range this week, influenced by factors such as the Mt. Gox supply and declining equities. While the market has been relatively stable, firms like QCP Capital anticipate a breakout following the US elections. FxPro senior market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich noted that certain indicators suggest Bitcoin is not yet overbought, leaving room for potential gains in the near future.
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