Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps to $ 14.2K; The use of Ethereum gas has grown by 113% since the beginning of the year

Bitcoin is gaining ground amid the uncertainty of the US presidential election, as Ethereum gas data highlights a decline in DeFi.

Bitcoin’s price gained on Wednesday, reaching $ 14,232 around 17:00 UTC (12 pm UTC), according to data from CoinDesk 20, after a brief decline in previous trading.

Read more: Bitcoin falls as Trump threatens to stop the vote count

“Bitcoin has recovered from the post-election decline, once again surpassing the $ 14,000 level,” said John Kramer, a trader at cryptocurrency firm GSR. “The asset has done a good job going on its way throughout the year, significantly outperforming the shares.”

Bitcoin grew 90% from the relatively paltry 4.5% performance of the S&P 500 in 2020.

Shares rose Wednesday despite the lack of a confirmed winner in the US presidential election. “The stocks are unaffected by uncertainty and are bouncing back in the face of two possible outcomes,” added GSR’s Kramer.

Jason Lau, chief operating officer for San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin, said he’s not convinced the bitcoin jump Wednesday has anything to do with the election outcome. “Although all eyes are on the election, it is too early to attribute bitcoin’s gains in terms of the impact of both candidates’ macro policy,” Lau told CoinDesk.

Cryptocurrency analysts are also keeping an eye on the US Dollar Index, a measure of the greenback’s strength against a basket of other currencies, which is up 0.15% at press time. “The dollar’s downtrend should resume,” said Bill Noble, Token Metrics Chief Technical Analyst.

Bitcoiners, as often happens, remain bullish anyway.

“Too many people believe that the election can stop the upward trend in cryptocurrencies,” Token Metrics’ Noble said. “A strong desire for economic freedom and the emergence of inflation are driving the bullish trend of cryptocurrencies. These trends are in motion and will remain in motion regardless of who occupies the White House. ”

“My view is that BTC will rise regardless of who wins this election in the short to medium term,” noted Alessandro Andreotti, an over-the-counter cryptocurrency trader.

A sign for bullish sentiment: Overnight, over 6,700 CME bitcoin futures contracts traded (33,500 BTC equivalent), 75% more than seen since the start of the year and more than double the volume seen since launch, according to a CME representative .

The second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), rose on Wednesday trading around $ 400 and climbing 4.6% in 24 hours at 21:00 UTC (16:00 ET).

Read more: The Ethereum 2.0 countdown begins with the release of the deposit agreement

Ethereum usage, in terms of total gas, has grown 113% in 2020 so far, from 37,252,588,523 on January 1 to 79,617,868,730 on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the fees on the Ethereum network, which are required to conduct transactions and interact with decentralized finance, or DeFi, continue to be lower. On November 1st, the average transaction fees dropped to 0.00229753 ETH.

Ben Chan, vice president of engineering for Oracle’s supplier Chainlink, says this data suggests that despite growth in 2020, there is currently less demand on the Ethereum network as interest in DeFi has apparently waned. “What this could mean is that people are less urgent to get transactions, they are willing to wait longer,” he told CoinDesk.

Digital assets on CoinDesk 20 are mixed on Wednesday. Notable Winners at 8pm UTC (4pm ET):

Read more: Razor Network raises $ 3.7 million to prove there is room for more oracles in DeFi