Election Tension Sparks Outflows in Bitcoin ETFs as Dogecoin Rallies

The US election is in full swing and as of writing this, the vote counting is underway. And the crypto market is mildly enthusiastic, with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana making gains. However, data for the US Spot ETFs shows some major outflows, indicating a bit of uncertainty.

Related: UK Pension Fund Cartwright Makes 3% Bitcoin Allocation

Data from Farside shows that the funds had US$541 million (AU$820 million) in outflows on Monday. This was the second largest single-day outflow, only topped on 1 May with US$563.7 million (AU$854.9 million).

While the biggest fund, Black Rock’s IBIT, had net inflows of US$38.4 million (AU$58.2 million), The biggest outflows came from Fidelity’s FBTC, Ark’s ARKB, the Grayscale funds and Bitwise’s BITB.

Based on the latest – albeit incomplete – data from yesterday’s trading session, the outflow seems to continue.

Altcoins, Memecoins Take Centre Stage

But it may not be Bitcoin that investors need to focus on this election. Zaheer Ebtikar, founder of crypto fund Split Capital, told Bloomberg that the election is not all that important for Bitcoin, but immensely so for altcoins.

For altcoins, they may not recover as much if Kamala Harris wins. They are the biggest winners or losers of the election.

Zaheer Ebtikar, Split Capital

Among the biggest gainers in the past 24 hours are Bittensor (TAO), Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI/FET), but also the usual suspects: memecoins.

Cat in a dogs world (MEW), dogwifhat (WIF) and Pepe (PEPE) all booked double-digit gains. But, an old dog, so to speak, is making a lot of waves. Dogecoin (DOGE) has seen massive gains, currently up 25% on the 24-hour timeframe.

This comes as comments by Elon Musk have traders excited. If Trump wins the election it’s rumoured that Musk could spearhead a new department called Department of Government Efficiency, or D.O.G.E.

It’s expected that a Trump win would mean less red tape and an end to the regulatory crackdown on crypto. After all, Bitcoin already has clarity in the US, with Securities and Exchange (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler repeatedly calling it the only crypto with clarity and a status as a commodity.

Related: Reports: Hester Peirce Could Succeed Gary Gensler at Helm of SEC

With all this it’s easy to see why open interest (OI) in DOGE has been increasing, nearing new all-time highs (ATH). We’ll hopefully find out soon who wins the election and whether Musk will be involved in D.O.G.E, and what will happen to the price of (the other) DOGE.