Bitcoin experienced a brief rally, climbing over 3% within the past hour and reaching a peak of $71,500 as markets reacted to Donald Trump’s early lead in the United States election.

The price has since pulled back slightly to $71,309, based on TradingView data.

Memecoins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu saw even greater gains of 5% and 3%, respectively, over the same period, while Ethereum and Solana rose by 1.9% and 2.6%, according to CoinGecko data.

The rally coincides with Republican candidate Donald Trump holding a lead over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, with the Associated Press reporting Trump ahead 95 to 35 in electoral college votes.

Crypto markets have shown increased volatility amid election developments.

Earlier, Bitcoin dropped 2.4% to a local low of $68,755 at 8:00 pm UTC.

DOGE and SHIB also faced downward swings but remain up 11.2% and 8.5% over the last 24 hours, as per CoinGecko data.

Dogecoin's rally was spurred in part by billionaire Elon Musk, who continues to support Trump and the memecoin’s connection to Musk's “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative, which advocates reducing what Trump and Musk view as wasteful government spending.

Market experts have predicted that volatility will spike significantly once the election results are confirmed.

Bitfinex analysts suggested this could lead to “big moves” in either direction or a “much deeper correction” for Bitcoin.

One trader projected that Bitcoin’s price could fluctuate by “at least” 10% once the results are finalized.

Bitcoin's volatility index, which measures forward-looking volatility, hit a three-month high of 65.7 on Nov. 3 but has since eased to 63.8, according to data from crypto derivatives exchange Deribit.

Vote counting has already started in eight states, with Trump currently leading Harris 23 to 3 in electoral college votes.

The first polls will close on Nov. 5 at 11:00 am UTC.

The timing of the final election outcome remains uncertain, as results could be declared hours after polls close or take several days if narrow margins in key swing states necessitate recounts.

Additionally, volatility may be amplified by the US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Nov. 7, where there is a 94.1% projected chance of an interest rate cut of 25 basis points.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-price-jumps-us-election-results-donald-trump-dogecoin-elon-musk

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=COINBASE%3ABTCUSD

https://www.coingecko.com/

https://apnews.com/projects/election-results-2024/

https://www.coingecko.com/

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1853918850925957458

https://www.deribit.com/statistics/BTC/volatility-index/

https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html