This Week in Crypto Twitter: Bitcoin Takes a Hit as Trump-Themed Tokens Dump
August 11, 2024 19:01 •
Crypto Twitter crashed earlier this week as grim global economic numbers filled a sea of red. After the weekend, noted Bitcoin hater Peter Schiff said to prepare for a “crypto Black Monday.”
#Bitcoin just dropped below $58k. If it gets knocked out, it's a July low by tomorrow's U.S.#StockMarketopen, and#BitcoinETFswill be down over 15% and 30% below their January highs. Losses of this magnitude could eventually trigger mass ETF liquidations. If so, get ready for#CryptoBlack Monday.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff)August 4, 2024
“Bitcoin HODlers in denial,” he later noted. “You’re whistling past a crypto graveyard — don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Given the sharp decline in traditional financial markets around the world, the price of BTC did indeed fall below $50,000 on Monday, a 12% drop in 24 hours. While there was much gnashing of teeth and despair, many Bitcoin faithful remained steadfast, including MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor.
Global financial turmoil has brought a quick education to many in international finance and the yen, and crypto fanatics seem to have suddenly become experts on the subject.
[Guy who just learned about the yen carry trade] Ah, look, this is all about the yen carry trade
— Matt Cowgill (@MattCowgill) August 6, 2024
A brief distraction from the disaster? The long-awaited announcement of the winner of the “Veepstakes,” when U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. It was a frustrating choice for crypto bettors on prediction market Polymarket, with the most likely odds favoring Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The results sparked a conversation about how accurate Polymarket (or prediction markets in general) might actually be.
Polymarket walzed 3% on Friday; can we acknowledge that degenerate gamblers may not always be great predictors of the future?
— jstn (@jstn) August 6, 2024
By mid-week, crypto markets began to stabilize, with Solana seeing surprising strength. Missing from the recovery, however, was the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, which continues to struggle even with the new spot Ethereum ETF on the market. Market observers joked that both Solana and Ethereum would hit the same big round numbers — just heading in opposite directions.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the biggest crypto buzz this week revolved around Donald Trump, or at least his family. Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. teased that “big announcements” were coming in the crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
Given the messy controversy surrounding Donald Trump and his newfound affection for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies — on top of an endless stream of Trump-themed meme coins — more than a few people are skeptical. YouTube investigator Coffeezilla said this is just a “new crypto scam.”
The announcement also sparked a buzz about what it might be, with a large portion of crypto Twitter ready to believe it would be an official token — unlike DJT, the last rumored token that turned out to have no apparent connection to Trump. Soon, attention focused on Solana’s “Restored Republic” (RTR) coin, which surged to over $100 million in market cap.
Then, Eric Trump sounded the alarm about “fake coins” in the bubble, prompting a near-total collapse of RTR.
The flash of hype ensnared many crypto Twitter influencers and countless potential investors — one of whom lost nearly $900,000.
In fact, this wasn’t the only Trump-themed meme coin to plummet last week. DJT, another token briefly thought to be associated with the former U.S. president, also plunged in price after a wallet tied to its developers sold billions of tokens, in what some traders categorized as a “carpet pull.”
As the week draws to a close, crypto investors are looking back on a wild week and breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t the end of the world. Prices have rebounded, with Bitcoin breaking through the $62,000 mark on Friday and other cryptocurrencies similarly clawing back their respective lost gains.
