The Crypto market showed no signs of enthusiasm ahead of Thursday’s crucial US presidential debate between incumbent President JOE Biden and his crypto-friendly Republican candidate Donald Trump.
At 04:56 UTC, TRUMP, the first major token in the PoliFi sector, was trading at NEAR of $8.5, representing a 24-hour decline of 0.5%. Its Solana-based peer TREMP was trading down 7.2% at 74 cents and the JOE Biden-themed BODEN coin was down 16% at 13 cents, according to data source Coingecko. Meanwhile, Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, traded 1% lower at $61,000.
According to TS Lombard, the first presidential debate of 2024, scheduled for Thursday at 9:00 p.m. ET, is likely to bring “some surprises to voters but has the potential to reshape, if not reshape, a deadlocked race.”
“If shaky Biden underperforms his rival, pressure from big Democratic donors to abandon his candidacy will increase, especially since Biden now lags behind in fundraising for the second month in a row. If Trump goes off the rails , Republicans might grimace, but the GOP ticket will win. “That won’t change. Rather, it will be up to the vice president’s choice, not yet announced, to stabilize his campaign,” TS Lombard said in a note to clients on Tuesday.
“In both cases, the bar (set by the first truculent Trump-Biden debate) is low, but the stakes are high,” Lombard added.
The crypto industry has been pushing to ensure digital assets are discussed during the televised presidential showdown, and potential comments from both candidates could inject volatility into the market.
Crypto traders will be watching the debate closely, as Trump has made digital assets a vital issue in his presidential campaign by courting industry leaders and recently emphasizing the need to mine all remaining Bitcoin in the United States. As such, crypto is now considered a Trump trade, with Standard Chartered anticipating a record BTC rally to $150,000 in the event of a potential Trump victory.
Meanwhile, Biden has remained silent, after directing federal agencies to explore risks and opportunities, including the potential launch of a central bank digital currency managed by the Fed.
“Ahead of tonight’s first presidential debate, Crypto traders will be keenly looking for clues about what the November election could mean for Bitcoin and the industry as a whole,” said Neil Roarty, analyst at investment platform Stocklytics , in an email to CoinDesk.
“The consensus within the Crypto community seems to be that a Trump victory would be good for the industry. Aside from the vocal support he has provided, Bitcoin tends to perform well during periods of political and economic uncertainty , and a second Trump presidency is likely to see more of both,” Roarty added.
