LONDON: Joe McCann was sitting in his Miami condo, eyes glued to screens flashing with bitcoin trades as the American election results rolled in.
"When the first polls closed, we started to see massive U.S. buying and it just hasn't stopped since," said McCann, founder of crypto-focused hedge fund Asymmetric. "The sentiment in the crypto community is a form of elation at this point."
Indeed bitcoin has skyrocketed over 32 per cent since Nov. 5 to an all time high of more than US$91,000 dollars as traders bet President-elect Donald Trump's promised support for digital assets would lead to a less restrictive regulatory regime and inject some life back into bitcoin after a listless few months.
On Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, the average bitcoin daily trading volume from Nov. 6 to Nov. 13 jumped to about US$493 million, nearly double the year's average of around US$252 million, as per crypto data provider Kaiko.
Volumes on Coinbase were triple the year's average during the same period, averaging over US$108 million per day.
Meanwhile, U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds tracking the spot price of bitcoin, products favored by institutional investors, notched their biggest daily net inflows on record of US$1.43 billion dollars on Nov. 7, according to CoinShares.
Yet many market players cautioned that investors could get burned by profit-taking and market pullbacks in the coming weeks, with Coinglass' bitcoin "fear and greed" index - a measure of market sentiment - firmly in "greed" territory.
"Expect some confusion as even the most sophisticated and connected market participants try to parse if a Trump administration means a more balanced regulatory regime, a Wild West free-for-all, or if Trump will simply forget about crypto entirely," said Matthew Graham, managing partner at Ryze Labs.
Crypto market tops US$3 trillion
It's definitely getting choppy.
Bitcoin's annualized 30-day volatility ticked back up to over 58 per cent, its highest since September and after slumping as slow as 25 per cent in June, according to data from The Block.
The market gains go beyond bitcoin; The total cryptocurrency market value has soared to an all-time high of US$3.16 trillion, according CoinGecko. Open interest on derivatives exchanges is at a record high of over US$102 billion, Coinglass data showed.
Ethereum has jumped about 32 epr cent since the election, while the market value of decentralised finance-focused tokens touched a five-month high of US$93 billion.
Despite the initial excitement, details on what exactly will change under a new administration remain hazy.
The main focus now is the appointment of Trump's U.S. Treasury Secretary, with a few potential candidates including Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, seen as more crypto friendly.
Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, warned traders should stay alert for sudden pullbacks: "The appointment could trigger short-term speculation."