The Two Most Talked-About Figures in the U.S. Completely Overlooked Crypto in a Two-Hour Interview

If you thought the title referred to the two U.S. presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, you’d only be half right on that bet. One of them is indeed a candidate — Donald Trump. The other? None other than the controversial entrepreneur with a love for Dogecoin and a passion for oddly shaped cars. Yes, you guessed it, it is Elon Musk.

The conversation covered everything from securing the U.S.-Mexico border, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, immigration, Vice President Kamala Harris, illegal immigration, the economy, AI, and even global warming. Heck, the word “tampon” even made an appearance. But not a single mention of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, or anything remotely related.

More: Tesla Investors Sue Elon Musk for Diverting Resources to xAI

Are Billionaires Lying?

Elon Musk’s chat with former President Donald Trump didn’t exactly get off to a smooth start. The interview, hosted on X Spaces and scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern on Monday night, was abruptly interrupted and didn’t actually didn't begin until 42 minutes later.

Eighteen minutes after the conversation was supposed to start, Musk announced that X had fallen victim to a “massive DDOS attack,” which supposedly threw the Space off course. Despite the delay, over a million listeners managed to tune in once the issue was resolved.

Musk mentioned the interruption on Twitter at 8:18 p.m. Eastern, claiming that the system had been tested with eight million concurrent listeners earlier that same day.

But The Verge had some doubts. The rest of X seemed to be functioning just fine, and a source within the company confirmed to The Verge that there was, in fact, no DDOS attack. Another X employee estimated there was a "99 percent" likelihood that Elon was just making it up.

Those who managed to enter the Space, including several Verge employees, reported that it began with some lo-fi techno playing from Trump’s account for about 30 minutes.

A warning from the cybersecurity watchdog organization NetBlocks mentioned that X Spaces had experienced international outages, but there was no confirmation that this was due to a DDOS attack.

High Stakes on Trump Talk

Polymarket had quite the night as bettors wagered on whether Trump would say certain words during his interview. The hottest topic was “Cryptocurrency,” with a whopping $800,000 waiting on the sidelines.

They also added another market asking players if Trump would say “Bitcoin,” which peaked at a 69% chance with around $330,000 at stake.

Then there was “Tesla,” with over $250,000 riding on Trump name-dropping the electric car giant. That bet hit a high of 79%, but Trump swerved, opting to refer to Musk’s brand as “your cars.”

Not all the obvious bets were lost, though. Other words that bettors had their money on, which Trump did eventually say, included “MAGA,” “illegal immigrant,” and, surprisingly, “tampon.” The last one caught everyone off guard when Trump mentioned Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the feminine hygiene legislation he signed last year.

But not everyone on Polymarket ended up in the red. One user, known as “bama1234,” cashed out with just over $1 million after accurately forecasting most of the words Trump either mentioned or avoided during the interview. Betting that Trump wouldn’t say “cryptocurrency,” earning them $336,918.

Related: Donald Trump Won’t 'Make Bitcoin Great Again'

Even though cryptocurrency has become a hot election topic, and Trump appeared at the recent BTC 2024 conference in Nashville to announce his crypto policy, it still flies under the radar during major events like the first presidential debate in June. Is Trump’s newfound crypto support just a ploy to score points with gullible voters?

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