Share this article

Markets Daily Gets Political: The Post-Trust Election

Today on Markets Daily we're taking a break from our quick-hit news roundup format for a brief discussion about the U.S. election in the age of bitcoin with CoinDesk features editor Ben Schiller and privacy-beat reporter Benjamin Powers.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:16 a.m. Published Mar 4, 2020, 5:00 p.m.
MD POST TRUST FRONT

Today on Markets Daily we're taking a break from our quick-hit news roundup format for a brief discussion about the U.S. election in the age of bitcoin with CoinDesk features editor Ben Schiller and privacy-beat reporter Benjamin Powers.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Stitcher, RadioPublica or RSS.

Yesterday, CoinDesk launched its Post-Trust Election series, looking at how politics and the U.S. presidential campaigns are grappling with issues of cryptocurrency, data security, privacy, disinformation, online voting and other areas. We spoke with Ben about why we're launching this series and what it means. Benjamin was on the ground in South Carolina in the days leading up to that primary, heard all the major candidates speak and spoke with voters, so we wanted to see whether cryptocurrencies and blockchain were factoring into people's thought process around the primaries and election.

The candidates have been largely silent on the issue of cryptocurrencies, outside of the Andrew Yang campaign before it folded. But with trust in traditional institutions waning, the rise of a digital national currency in China, and whispers of the same in the U.S., the world of cryptocurrency is seemingly on a collision course with politics. In the same way things like election interference, disinformation, and the impact of tech platforms rose to national prominence in the years following 2016, we think stablecoins, decentralization and privacy will have a similar impact on the national discourse leading up to, and in the wake of, 2020.

Read more:

Pete Buttigieg Was Silicon Valley's Favorite

Yang 2020 and the Search for the Next Crypto Candidate

Why Aren't the Candidates Talking About Digital Currency?

Letter From New Hampshire: The Dangers of Disinformation

How Democracy Breaks: Everything That Could Go Wrong With the Election

For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocketcasts, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Stitcher, RadioPublica or RSS.

More For You

KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market

16:9 Image

KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.

What to know:

  • KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
  • This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
  • Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
  • Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
  • Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

More For You

Strategy shares register first six-month losing streak since adoption of bitcoin strategy in 2020

Michael Saylor (Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Modified by CoinDesk)

Crypto analyst Chris Millas has highlighted an unusually persistent slump in Strategy shares, breaking with past drawdown patterns even as the firm continued accumulating bitcoin.

What to know:

  • Strategy shares fell in each of the final six months of 2025, marking the first time since the firm adopted bitcoin in August 2020 as a treasury reserve asset.
  • The decline stands out for its persistence, as past selloffs were often followed by sharp rebounds.
  • The stock sharply underperformed both bitcoin and the Nasdaq 100 despite the firm's continued BTC purchases.