Key Insights
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There was a highly expected interview between Elon Musk and Donald Trump this week.
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Before the interview, Twitter was hit with a massive DDoS attack.
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Even despite the interview, Trump refrained from mentioning anything related to crypto, Bitcoin or even Tesla.
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This comes amid nearly $4 million in bets over the mention of these keywords.
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Despite the bettors’ frustration, Trump may have been refraining from making his campaign entirely centred around crypto.
This week, amid the highly anticipated interview on Twitter Spaces, former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk engaged in an interview. They spoke about the upcoming US presidential elections and other pressing issues.
However, several interesting things happened before, during, and after the interview, and here’s a breakdown of how things went down.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
The Crypto Community’s Anticipation
Right before the interview, PolyMarket, a betting platform, saw a massive flood of $4 million in bets over whether Trump would mention specific words like “crypto,” “Bitcoin,” and so on.
Interestingly, the “crypto” alone had more than $800,000 riding on it.
No mention of crypto keywords
Musk and Trump discussed US border security, Vice President Harris, the Ukraine conflict, the Middle East, immigration, and other topics.
However, amid these discussions, the word “crypto” or even “Tesla” or “Bitcoin” wasn’t mentioned even a single time.
This lack of crypto mention stung the bettors even more harshly, considering Trump’s recent effort to pitch himself to the crypto community.
Earlier in the year, the Republican candidate even started accepting election donations in crypto to show a more favourable stance toward the sector.
He even mentioned at the Mar-a-Lago event that he was “good” with crypto.
NEW: Former President Donald Trump is considering JP Morgan CEO and #Bitcoin critic Jamie Dimon for Treasury Secretary if re-elected.
Both have historically been critical of Bitcoin, with Dimon calling it a tool for criminals and Trump dismissing it as "not money."… pic.twitter.com/RvqWYShCAh
— Avinash ab Roy (@Ab2020Roy) July 17, 2024
This is despite earlier criticism of the sector and an especially famous tweet in which he stated that Bitcoin’s value was based on “thin air”.
The DDoS Attack and Fan Disappointment
The interview itself wasn’t entirely challenge-free, as Musk reported that someone launched a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the platform, causing a delay.
Keep in mind that DDoS attacks, according to CloudFlare, occur when an attacker bombards a platform with thousands or even millions of unnecessary requests simultaneously in an effort to overwhelm or crash said service.
There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on . Working on shutting it down.
Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Musk announced the interruption on Twitter, expressing surprise, considering how the system had been tested earlier in the day with eight million sample listeners.
However, over one million listeners eventually tuned in at the end of the day, only for crypto fans to end up disappointed.
One user, Naiive, summed up the sentiment by tweeting, “I spent three hours listening [to] Elon and Trump space, but they didn’t mention ‘crypto’.”
However, crypto investor Willem Schroe said, “Trump didn’t say the words ‘Bitcoin’ or ‘crypto’ tonight, and I think that’s okay. His campaign is clearly pro-crypto. That’s enough. Too much politics in Bitcoin is distracting.”
Spent 3 hours listening Elon & Trump space but they didn't mention " crypto "pic.twitter.com/av0Nt09qUx
— naiive (@naiivememe) August 13, 2024
Interestingly, this lack of mention of crypto had immediate effects on the crypto market as a whole, with Trump-themed meme coins like MAGA (Trump) and MAGA (MAGA) dropping massively as the entire PolitiFi sector slid by more than 5%.
Marketwide slide in Trump coins
Overall, while Trump’s silence on crypto may have been frustrating to some listeners, others have seen it as a calculated move to avoid making his entire campaign about crypto alone.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information but will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.