Biden-Trump Presidential Debate: No Mention of Crypto, But Market Still Reacts

Key Takeaways

• Joe Biden and Donald Trump didn’t discuss crypto policy during Thursday’s presidential debate.
• However, meme coins referencing the two candidates still responded to their performance.
• Jeo Boden and Doland Tremp fell 30% and 15% respectively during the event.

In a highly anticipated presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, the two candidates sparred over issues such as abortion, healthcare, and immigration. However, one topic that was absent from the discussion was cryptocurrency. 

Yet despite this omission, the crypto market still experienced notable reactions to the debate.

Bitcoin Unfazed by Presidential Debate

As an asset whose price closely tracks the news cycle, any mention of Bitcoin during the presidential debate could have caused the cryptocurrency to rise or fall, depending on what was said.

But as the question of crypto policy wasn’t discussed, the price of BTC doesn’t appear to have been influenced by the event. 

However, some cryptocurrencies did respond to Trump and Biden’s performance.

Political Meme Coins Respond to Debate

Throughout the debate, two parody meme coins that have come to stand as tongue-in-cheek crypto proxies for Trump and Biden both declined in value.

During the 90 minutes of back and forth, the price of Jeo Boden fell by around 30% while the price of Doland Tremp dropped roughly 15%.

Other meme coins that reference the presidential candidates also suffered, including MAGA (TRUMP), Super Trump and MAGA hat. 

According to CoinGecko’s index of top PolitFi tokens , the total market for political meme coins is down 4.6% in the last 24 hours.

While Trump’s critics largely expected the bombastic Republican candidate to come wielding his hallmark firebrand rhetoric and factually questionable claims, even Biden’s supporters were disappointed by his performance. 

Did Trump Win the Presidential Debate?

Appearing on CNN, Biden’s former White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield called the debate “really disappointing.” 

Meanwhile, Steve Schmidt, a former Republican political strategist who co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project observed: “Joe Biden lost the country tonight, and will not get it back.”

If Biden’s critics are correct and his poor debate performance has put the country on course for a Trump presidency, many in the crypto community will welcome the change of administration.

Just because neither candidate mentioned crypto on Thursday doesn’t mean it’s fallen off their radar. Between Biden’s hiring of Carole House and Trump’s outreach to Bitcoin miners, both men have made an effort to court pro-crypto voters. But having empowered the SEC’s hardline crackdown on American crypto firms for four years, Biden’s recent softening on the issue may be too little too late.