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Biden and Trump avoid discussing cryptocurrency during the first presidential debate, despite significant fundraising by crypto lobbyists. Trump and Biden’s crypto stances vary as elections approach.
Crypto industry advocacy groups have been rather active this election year, and yet neither Joe Biden, the president of the United States, nor Donald Trump, the incumbent candidate of the opposition, have uttered the word ‘crypto’ throughout their most recent 90-minute debate on Thursday.
Debate Focus and Crypto’s Absence
The first of the two debates moderated by CNN on June 27 centred on economy, abortion, immigration, and foreign policy. It also mentioned the candidates’ cognitive skills; Biden, being 81 years old and Trump, 78, were the oldest candidates for the presidency. Crypto was not mentioned in the show, but contributors using crypto-backed super PACs galloped to $202,8 million to spend $93,6 million to fund the 2024 elections.
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Crypto PACs and Their Influence
In the 2024 election cycle, Fairshake PAC has gathering $177,8 million and spending $70,8 million where they mostly spent their money in the attack ads for the Congressional candidates. Two other similar super PACs are Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs; the two have out spent $22.8 million and have $25 million fundraising. Although these three super PACs are not allowed to coordinate with the campaigns, collectively they have been able to raise the third highest amount of money of any PAC.
Candidate Positions on Crypto
Trump stated he wants to stop what he refers to as Biden’s war on crypto and sees the miners, asserting his wish for crypto to be “made in America” lately, while others CEO of Kraken Dave Ripley said that Biden is becoming somewhat friendly towards crypto. Still, some, such as Mr Cuban who is a staunch supporter of cryptocurrencies, have opined that measures employed by the nation’s securities authority might cost Biden a second term.
Public and Candidate Views
Surveys by Gallup reveal that crypto is out of the voters’ list of concerns that include the economy, inflation, poor governance, and immigration. But pro-crypto independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who was denied the opportunity to participate in the debate organized by CNN as he did not meet the stipulated criteria to attend the debate, organized a ‘real debate’ on X where he re-iterated his stand to use artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to get rid of the massive wastage experienced by the government today.
Polls and Future Debates
Before the debate on June 27, FiveThirtyEight officially displayed that Trump has a slight lead over Biden with only 0.2 percentage points with Kennedy at 9 percentage points. Another Biden and Trump confrontation is planned for the September 10th while the elections will be held on the 5th of November.
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