What Trump’s win means for Bitcoin, ETF inflows, SEC chair and more | Weekly Recap

In today’s edition of the weekly recap: Bitcoin clinches a new all-time high after the U.S. election; crypto ETFs see record inflows; FTX sues crypto.com; and observers speculate who might replace SEC chair Gary Gensler.

Bitcoin hits new ATH

• Early projections of the U.S. presidential election on the betting markets pointed to a Donald Trump win. And they were correct. The pro-crypto Republican candidate secured 312 electoral votes and 74.6 million popular votes, per data from the Associated Press. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, won 226 electoral votes and 70.9 million popular votes.

• Bitcoin (BTC) breached the March all-time high at $73,700 on Nov. 6, entering a price discovery mode and clinched a new peak above $76,000. On Nov. 10, the asset soared past $80,000.

• Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve announced an additional 25 bps interest rate cut on Nov. 7, contributing to the uptrend as Bitcoin held above $76,000 and the rest of the crypto market remained green.

Aftermath  

• The market rallied; the crypto market cap soared 5% to $2.56 trillion in the early hours of Nov. 6.
  
• Kamala Horris (KAMA), a Harris-themed parody coin, slumped 90%. In contrast, Trump-themed meme coins such as MAGA and Trump 47 rallied. Other meme coins also spiked.
  
• The NFT sales volume was $84.6 million last week and increased to $96.1 million, according to recent data from CryptoSlam. Ethereum (ETH) blockchain still holds its first position with $31.19 million in sales and Bitcoin overtook Solana (SOL) for second place with $26.3 million. The number of NFT buyers dropped by 90.20% and NFT sellers decreased by 88.80% from last week.

Congress

• In addition, Congress also saw the emergence of multiple crypto-friendly lawmakers. The electorate voted in 268 pro-crypto candidates in the House of Reps and 19 in the Senate.
  
• Crypto-friendly Senator Cynthia Lummis reiterated the plan to build a Bitcoin reserve in the country, one of Trump’s crypto campaign promises. 
  
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that the elections were a victory for the crypto industry in the U.S., noting that the country is about to witness the most crypto-friendly Congress in history.

SEC chair replacement

• The crypto community saw SEC chairman Gary Gensler as the industry’s primary antagonist within the Biden administration. As a result, Trump promised to fire him on “the first day in office.”

• Following Trump’s victory, discussions about Gensler’s sack dominated the community. However, as crypto.news reported, such a process could take some time due to administrative constraints.

• Reports confirmed that pro-crypto Dan Gallagher, the chief legal officer at trading platform Robinhood, was one of the top candidates considered by the Trump team to replace Gensler. 

ETFs see record inflows

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs performed remarkably on the back of the market uptrend. With Bitcoin’s new peak on Nov. 6, these products saw $621.9 million in net inflows.

• The next day, they witnessed a massive $1.38 billion in inflows, the highest intraday net inflow since their launch in January. The BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust contributed the most to this record, cupping $1.12 billion that day.

• Last week, Ethereum ETFs recorded their highest weekly inflow since the July launch, amounting to $154.66 million.

FTX sues crypto.com

• FTX also made headlines last week. The bankrupt exchange sued the crypto trading platform Crypto.com. The lawsuit aimed to reclaim $11 million in assets held in a Crypto.com account controlled by Alameda Research.

• Reports from Nov. 7 also confirmed that Caroline Ellison, the former Alameda Research CEO and Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-lover, had started her two-year sentence in a Connecticut prison.

Polymarket ban

• Polymarket users who placed bets in favor of Trump began cashing out after the GOP candidate’s victory. Particularly, a French whale netted $21 million in profit. 
  
• Another user secured a massive $79 million winning on the back of Trump’s win. Interestingly, reports suggested that the French government was mulling the possible ban on Polymarket.