Bitcoin Slides, Yen Gains as Trump-Harris Debate Disappoints Markets

• Asian markets and U.S. stock futures experienced a downturn, with Bitcoin dropping over 2% to $56,300, reflecting a risk-off sentiment in financial markets following the presidential debate where Kamala Harris was perceived to outperform Donald Trump.
• Dogecoin led declines among major cryptocurrencies, while Trump-themed political finance tokens saw significant losses, contrasting with a gain in Harris-themed tokens, indicating market sentiment aligning with the debate's perceived outcome.

It's a risk-off day in Asia after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris supposedly outshined former President and pro-crypto Republican candidate Donald Trump in the second presidential debate.

Bitcoin BTC$69,711.05, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, fell over 2% to $56,300, with the CoinDesk 20 Index, the broader market gauge, falling nearly 2.5%, according to CoinDesk data.

Dogecoin DOGE$0.1051 led losses among major tokens with a 4% slide in the past 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows, while xrp XRP$1.4781, Solana’s SOL, ether ETH$2,081.71 and BNB Chain’s BNB remained little changed.

Meanwhile, bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) extended inflows to a second-straight day after a record losing streak, bagging $117 million led by Fidelity’s FBTC product.

Early this year, Trump began courting the crypto community, often touted as single-issue voters, establishing bitcoin and the wider crypto market as bet on his presidency. Since then, traders have closely watched Trump and Harris' odds on the betting platform Polymarket.

According to Polymarket traders, Harris won the first presidential debate between her and Trump. Trump had debated Joe Biden earlier, before the President dropped out of the race and handed the reins to Harris.

In traditional markets, futures tied to the S&P 500 lost 0.4%, and Chinese stocks fell to a seven-month low as Trump defended trade tariffs during the debate, saying they would not result in higher prices for the U.S. consumers.

The anti-risk Japanese yen strengthened to 140.70 per U.S. dollar, the highest since January, appreciating beyond the early August level of 141.68. The yen picked up a strong bid in late July as the Bank of Japan hiked interest rates for the first time in decades, triggering an unwinding of the risk-on yen carry trades.

Trump-themed tokens deep in the red

While Polymarket bettors have the election tied to 49-49, polls say that Kamala Harris won this debate.

Meanwhile, Trump-themed Political Finance (PoliFi) tokens are hurting, with the MAGA TRUMP$3.5694 token down 11.7%, Solana’s TREMP$0.006265 token down 27%, and the MAGA Hat (MAGA) token down 23.5%.

Meanwhile, the Harris-themed ‘Kamala Horris’ (KAMA) token is up 7.6%.

The entire PoliFi category market cap is down 8.8% to just over $540 million.

Back on Polymarket, bettors are putting their money on a 56% chance of another debate happening, and a 27% chance that Trump fires his campaign manager. Immediately after the debate wrapped, Trump made an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, which observers say is a sign that the campaign felt the debate performance wasn’t that strong.