• Bitcoin surpassed $71,000 in Asian trading hours, with a 5% increase over 24 hours, leading to significant trading volume and the liquidation of over $143 million in short positions.

• The rally was partly driven by whale activity on Binance and substantial inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, which saw a net increase of 47,000 BTC in the last two weeks.

• The surge is influenced by the upcoming U.S. elections, with traders betting on bullish market conditions regardless of the outcome.

Bitcoin jumped above $71,000 in Asian morning hours Tuesday to lead a wider market move ahead, nearly a week ahead of the U.S. elections that traders largely consider a bullish catalyst for the market regardless of who wins.

BTC added 5% in the past 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows, breaking out of a key $70,000 resistance with $48 billion in trading volumes, or nearly double the volumes from Monday.

The move led to over $143 million in shorts, or bets against higher prices, to be liquidated in the past 12 hours, which may have contributed to a price spike higher as traders closed losing bets. BTC shorts lost $73 million, followed by $39 million on ETH shorts, data from CoinGlass shows.

"We see some shorts against the 70k getting liquidated as the market seems to be pricing in increasing certainty of a trump victory," QCP Capital co-founder Darius Sit told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.

CryptoQuant community analyst Mignolet attributed part of the buying demand to whales — a colloquial term for influential traders — on crypto exchange Binance, who are appearing to be net buyers of the asset largely in Asian hours.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have further contributed to demand with a net inflow of 47,000 BTC over the past two weeks.

Majors led by dogecoin (DOGE) surged higher. DOGE jumped 15% on continued Trump popularity, led by shiba inu (SHIB) at 8%. Ether (ETH) rose by 4.9%, while Cardano’s ADA, Solana’s SOL, and BNB Chain’s BNB jumped by more than 3%.