Photo: Marco Krohn / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Ether had its best day in weeks Wednesday, jumping back above $2,400 for the first time since late October as investors welcomed an end to election uncertainty in Washington.
The second-largest cryptocurrency traded at $2,430, up 6% on the day, as of 2:58 p.m. ET Wednesday, FXStreet reported. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, was up 3.5% at $80,500 around 3:09 p.m. ET, while solana and XRP each gained about 2.5%, according to The Block. The total crypto market value rose about 3%.
The rally followed Democrats’ sweep of both the House and Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections. President Trump said he is “absolutely willing” to work with Democrats, The New York Times reported. Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the result, writing on X that “the reason we lost is the war.”
The surge punished traders betting against crypto. About $469 million in leveraged positions were wiped out over 24 hours, according to Nexo, and liquidations tied to ether alone topped $241 million, most of them short positions, Coinglass data cited by FXStreet shows. Ether also climbed back above its average on-chain cost basis, a level traders watch as a floor in rising markets.
For everyday investors, that means most recent ether buyers are back in profit, and the gains spread well beyond crypto: the S&P 500 rose 1.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 2.2% Wednesday afternoon, while crypto-linked stocks rallied.
Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said the market’s muted reaction to Binance’s $6.3 billion hack earlier this week shows the industry’s growing maturity, according to The Block.
JBizNews Desk | NEW YORK
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