Bitcoin Rebounds After Falling Below $76,000 on Election Results

Bitcoin fell to $75,618 on Wednesday before recovering to about $78,000 after Democrats won control of the House and Senate in the U.S. midterm elections. The decline took the cryptocurrency to its lowest level since Sept. 16.

BTC/USD fell into Tuesday’s daily close as election results emerged, then reached $78,039 within three hours, according to TradingView data. Selling pressure kept the price below $78,000. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were each down about 0.3% at the time of reporting.

The decline liquidated leveraged Bitcoin long positions below $76,000. Total crypto long liquidations over the previous 24 hours reached $288 million, according to CoinGlass.

Kelly Ye, head of research at institutional digital-asset trading platform Talos, said traders had largely anticipated the election result. “Bitcoin moved about 1.7% after the polls closed, close to the roughly 1.8% options had priced, and there was no major leverage flush,” she said. “The election was the main event, but markets had largely prepared for it.”

U.S. stock futures initially fell after the election results and later recovered some of their losses. Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial, linked investor concerns to the potential effect of Democratic gains on data-center construction and artificial-intelligence infrastructure spending by major technology companies.

President Donald Trump, who had previously said he could block Democratic policy initiatives with vetoes, struck a conciliatory tone. “I think we’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll get along very well with them,” he said.

Bitcoin’s low coincided with its 50-week simple moving average, which stood at about $75,733. The average has provided support since mid-September.

Keith Alan, co-founder of crypto trading platform Material Indicators, said Bitcoin needed to hold above the 50-week average to avoid a deeper correction. A sustained break below that level could lead to further losses.

Crypto trader and analyst Rekt Capital identified resistance near $78,000 after Bitcoin failed to hold a breakout above that level. He said lower highs on the three-day chart could pull the price back toward about $75,500.