Following the first debate of the 2024 election cycle, blockchain bettors indicated a growing skepticism about President Biden’s performance as odds for former President Trump surged on the Polymarket platform. Trump’s odds of winning the November election reached 67%, indicating an increase in bettors’ confidence in his potential victory.
Polymarket currently holds a contract asking bettors to predict the 2024 election outcome, with nearly $188 million at stake, approximately $23 million on Trump and $21 million on Biden. The bets on Polymarket are placed in smart contracts on the Polygon blockchain and settled in the USDC stablecoin, with the platform reportedly experiencing brief downtime due to heavy traffic during the debate.
The market sentiment also points towards a less than 70% chance that Biden will take up the Democratic nomination, with the possibility of California Governor Gavin Newsom standing at 17%, and Michelle Obama at 7%. Moreover, the odds of Biden dropping off the presidential race increased during the debate to 43%.
As for crypto tokens representing Trump and Biden, they showed significant decline. According to CoinGecko data, the MAGA token (TRUMP), is down by 12.5%, and the BODEN token has decreased by 34%. The DJT token, which is linked to Barron Trump, is also down by 5%. It is worth noting that despite crypto becoming a significant issue within the Republican campaign, it was not brought up during this debate.
Despite not being invited to the debate, Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded to the questions asked during the Trump-Biden debate in a special broadcast on X, garnering 5.6 million views on the social media platform.