Bitcoin traded near $80,000 on Wednesday afternoon, changing hands at $80,099 at 3:12 p.m. ET. The asset held a market capitalization of approximately $1.61 trillion and recorded roughly $39.6 billion in trading volume over the previous 24 hours.

The price recovered from an election-night low of $75,600 as results showed Democrats taking both chambers of Congress. This political shift coincided with significant movement in leveraged crypto markets, where about $950 million in positions were liquidated over 24 hours.

Short Liquidations Drive Volatility

Bets against prices accounted for $560 million of the total liquidations. Bitcoin positions represented $403 million of that total, with 76% being shorts. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju stated on X that $215 million in bitcoin shorts were liquidated in a single hour.

Despite the intraday recovery, the bitcoin price remains about 36% below its all-time high near $126,080. On-chain data provider Glassnode reported the True Market Mean at $77,700 and the short-term holder cost basis at $75,700.

Equities Rally While Oil Drops

Broader financial markets reacted strongly to the election results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose about 1,500 points, or 3%, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.7% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.8%. Apple and Microsoft touched record highs during the session. The U.S. dollar index fell 0.55% to 101.32 in early trading.

Energy commodities declined sharply. Brent crude fell more than 9% to $93.91 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate dropped nearly 9% to $87.59 by 12:36 p.m. ET.

Political and Regulatory Reactions

Vice President JD Vance attributed the Republican losses to foreign policy, writing on X, “The reason we lost is the war.” Market analysts offered varying views on the impact of the Democratic sweep. CoinShares head of research James Butterfill said the outcome was largely priced into bitcoin before the vote. Lumida CEO Ram Ahluwalia predicted the result would bring “a one and done washout, and that resets where asset prices are.”

Regulatory expectations shifted following the results. TD Cowen’s Jaret Seiberg wrote that the sweep makes a crypto-backed CLARITY Act “impossible.” Prior to the price recovery, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs shed $115.6 million on Tuesday, with BlackRock’s IBIT losing $95 million.