During a 90-minute presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Bitcoin’s price surged by up to 1.1%, reflecting a shift in the betting markets as Trump gained an advantage over Biden. Bitcoin (BTC) was valued at $61,439 before the debate began and climbed to a peak of $62,152 as the candidates responded to rapid-fire questions from CNN moderators. By the time of publication, Bitcoin had slightly decreased to $61,362, according to TradingView data.
Bitcoin surged 1.1% as Trump widened his lead over Biden. Source: TradingView
Data from PredictIt, a prediction markets platform, indicated a sharp increase in Trump’s chances of winning the presidency, according to bettors. Concurrently, Biden’s odds dropped, likely influenced by his faltering responses and incomplete sentences during the debate. Trump’s share prices on PredictIt rose from approximately $0.53 to $0.63 within an hour, while Biden’s fell from $0.48 to $0.37, creating a 26-point gap between them.
Speculators downgraded Biden’s election chances following the debate. Source: PredictIt
Social media pundits were quick to critique Biden’s coherence and overall debate performance, with many, including Trump, noting his tendency to trail off at the end of his responses. “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence; I don’t think he knows what he said either,” Trump remarked regarding one of Biden’s statements on immigration.
Trump, meanwhile, was reported to have made over 30 false and misleading claims throughout the debate, particularly on topics like abortion and economic issues under Biden’s administration.
Despite not being mentioned in the debate, cryptocurrency has recently become a significant election issue. On June 16, Trump stated he would end Biden’s “war on crypto” if elected president in November. In March, Trump used his conservative social media platform, Truth Social, to express his intention to make the United States a global leader in crypto technology and criticized Biden, suggesting the current president would let crypto “die a slow and painful death.”
Related: Biden-Trump debate: Crypto goes completely unmentioned
On June 1, President Biden vetoed a resolution that aimed to repeal an SEC accounting guideline preventing banks from holding crypto assets on their balance sheets. This resolution had passed both the House and the Senate with a majority vote. Biden justified his veto by stating that he would not support legislation that might “jeopardize the well-being of consumers and investors.”
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