Bitcoin Price Drops After Harris Debate Lets Pro-Crypto Trump Rumble

Bitcoin’s price fell on Wednesday after the presidential debate and amid a wider decline in risk-driven assets.

On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump went head-to-head in the second presidential debate of the 2024 race, which saw both candidates on the offensive. President Joe Biden, previously the presumptive Democratic nominee, ended his campaign after a poor performance in the first debate.

After the event, Newsweek polled readers online and asked, “Who won the September 10 presidential debate?” Readers had Harris outvoted for Trump by 2 to 1.

The debate, which took place in Philadelphia, began at 9 p.m. ET, and bitcoin was down 1.2 percent to $56,258 by 1:58 a.m. The negative turn occurred after the debate ended, Investing.com reported.

According to the outlet, the increased competition for Trump has led to anxiety for crypto marketers, given his outspoken support for the sector, and speculation about Harris’ position.

None of the topics covered in Tuesday’s debate mentioned cryptocurrency, and Trump did not refer to it when talking about his planned economic policy.

Bitcoin has seen sharp losses recently, with the token falling to $52,000 last week. Broader crypto markets also saw a pullback, with the cryptocurrency ether down 0.8 percent to $2,330.17, according to Investing.com.

Initially a critic of cryptocurrencies, after branding them a “disaster waiting” in 2021, Trump changed his stance in March, and the Trump campaign later announced it would accept cryptocurrencies as donations.

The campaign promised to “build a crypto army that moves the campaign to victory on November 5th.” Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.

On September 5, Trump spoke at the Economic Club of New York and promised to turn the US into the crypto capital of the world. “Instead of attacking industries of the future, we will embrace them, including making America the world capital for crypto and bitcoin,” he said.

Garrick Hileman, an economic historian and independent cryptocurrency researcher, told Newsweek in an email: “The relatively modest drop in bitcoin’s price is consistent with what we saw in some prediction markets following the debate, which moved a positive 3 percentage points to a Harris win is seen as the better candidate for bitcoin, and the crypto market clearly thinks that Harris did somewhat better last night.

David Gerard, the author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, echoed the sentiment, telling Newsweek: “I don’t think the debate has had a particular effect on the price of bitcoin. The key point is that the bitcoin market is not responding to it No. Market signals like well-regulated high-volume bonds or commodities are a small, thinly traded, poorly regulated commodity market.

He added, “The price of bitcoin is determined by the day’s trading, and it trades overwhelmingly against the Tether and FDUSD stablecoins on Binance. The volumes of just the BTC/USDT and BTC/FDUSD trading pairs on that one exchange swamps all other trades. Binance is where the price is set.”

Gerard also said, “Binance is under strong US oversight regarding money laundering compliance – but the trading floor is completely unregulated.”

Harris has not spoken publicly about crypto regulation. The Biden administration cracked down on cryptocurrency in 2022, with Biden signing an executive order that “specified a national policy for digital assets across six key priorities: consumer and investor protection; financial stability; illicit financing; American leadership in the global financial system and economic competitiveness; financial inclusion;

The effect of the election on the value of cryptocurrency remains debatable. “The election is less important than many people think,” said Hileman.

“While some in the crypto industry see a continuation of Biden’s crypto policies as an existential threat, the reality is that crypto has seen continued growth in adoption and significant price gains since the Biden inauguration in January 2021,” he added.

Speaking to CNBC earlier in the year, Trump declared his shift to crypto after bitcoin’s price recovered in the wake of scandals and setbacks. He said that crypto is becoming more and more entrenched, adding: “I’m not sure I want to take it away at this point.”

In May, Trump doubled down on his pro-crypto stance in a speech to Libertarians, earning applause after promising to “stop Joe Biden’s crusade to crush crypto.”

“I will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of bitcoin will be made in the US, not driven overseas,” the former president said. “I will support the right to self-preservation to the country’s 50 million crypto holders.”

Hileman said, “Regardless of who wins the election, bitcoin is here to stay. However, some companies in the crypto industry, as well as certain crypto tokens, could be in more regulatory trouble if one candidate is elected over another.” “

“There has been a concerted effort by some of these players to back Trump as they believe he will allow for ‘light touch’ regulation and possibly even help support something like a US strategic bitcoin reserve,” he continued. “Whether such reserve and light-touch regulation represents good policy or not is debatable.”

Update 9/11/24, 10:51 am ET: This article has been updated to include comments from Garrick Hileman.

Update 9/11/24, 12:18 pm ET: This article has been updated to include comments from David Gerard.

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