Betting on the outcome of political events has been gaining increasing popularity over the last few years. The activity got increased attention from bettors, who also favored other strange bets that deviated from the outcome of sports competitions, including wagers for crypto developments, music concerts and other real-world events.
In the last week, Donald Trump, the famous billionaire and former President of the United States, made a number of important announcements. He confirmed his support for crypto after making positive comments about the decentralized currency during a recent presidential campaign in Washington, as announced by Binance Square. Supporting the future of crypto and Bitcoin, Trump said: “I will ensure that the future of crypto and Bitcoin will be made in the USA…I will support the right to self-custody to the nation’s 50 million crypto holders.”
The pro-crypto stance demonstrated by the former president immediately impacted his odds on prediction markets, including PredictIt and Polymarket. CoinDesk confirmed that in the last week, Trump’s recent activities resulted in a shift on PredictIt.
Considering that the platform offers options for betting on the upcoming election, Biden’s odds decreased from 46 cents to 44 cents. The aforementioned figures can be translated to percentage which means that odds of Biden winning the election are 44%, according to PredictIt.
Similarly, Polymarket also saw a change in its odds for the Presidential Election Winner 2024. In light of Trump’s recent support for cryptocurrency, he was able to gain 2%, increasing his odds to 56%. In contrast, Biden’s odds of being re-elected decreased by 2% to 37%.
Trump Vows to Commute the Sentence of Silk Road’s Founder
Besides his positive stance on cryptocurrency, Trump recently announced his plans to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road. Not unexpectedly, this would be achieved if Trump becomes president, he confirmed over the weekend.
Ulbricht, known as the founder of the infamous darknet marketplace called Silk Road, was sentenced back in 2015. At the time, he received two lifetime sentences in prison along with an additional 40 years for the creation of Silk Road, which no longer operates.
However, per Trump’s promise, if he wins the election, Ulbricht’s sentence will be changed to time served. Even if this happens, the founder of Silk Road has already served more than 10 years in prison.
In addition to support from the crypto community, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman also vowed to back Trump in the upcoming presidential election. The move came after the billionaire CEO, chairman and co-founder of Blackstone previously backed Trump during 2016 and 2020.