While the world awaits the outcome of the presidential elections in the United States, a parallel and peculiar contest is developing in the universe of cryptocurrencies.
Memecoins inspired by candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are capturing the attention of investorswho express their political preferences through digital tokens.
through the call President Memecoin Indextraders can now monitor the performance of these memecoins and, in many cases, even make their own bets on the political future of the United States.
This index allows you to observe the activity of the tokens associated with the names of the two candidates and has created an environment in which speculation and political fervor combine in unusual ways.
Donald Trump, candidate for the Republican Party, and Kamala Harris, current vice president and Democratic candidate, now are the protagonists of a digital popularity battle reflected in the fluctuating value of their respective memecoins.
Cryptocurrencies inspired by Trump include some of the most popular ones such as Doland Tremp (TREMP), MAGA (TRUMP), and Donald Trump (TRUMP). Meanwhile, memecoins backing Harris include Kamala Horris (KAMA), Krazy Kamala (KAMALA), and KAMALA HARRIS (HARRIS).
Comparisons between memecoins have become an attractive phenomenon, since many traders choose to bet on the candidate of their choice through the purchase of these tokens.
Currently, Trump memecoins are in the lead, as shown in the image below, suggesting an investor tilt towards the Republican candidate.
Memecoins are a reflection of the attention market
Ravi Bakhai, founder of Hype, explains that these assets are a reflection of the attention market: “The challenge with memecoins around events or trends is that sometimes there is not one coin that appeals to everyone. In the case of presidents, for example, there are several, so a visualization of indices helps capture more surface area around the trend.”
According to Bakhai, If investors believe a candidate will win, they are likely to buy the corresponding memecoinwhich increases its value.
“Memecoins are essentially attention markets, so the more attention is paid to a candidate, the more the price will rise,” he says.
The index also presents an interesting trend: its behavior partly reflects that of prediction marketslike Polymarket.
In this decentralized market, users can stake tokens on the outcomes of future events using smart contracts on the Polygon network.
As in Hype, the majority of bets on Polymarket seem to favor Trump, who leads with 62% compared to 37% for Harris, as seen in the following image.
Prediction markets have become relevant in these elections, providing a virtual space where “actions” linked to future events are bought and sold.
These platforms resemble betting markets, where, instead of betting on a sports team, participants try to predict outcomes of events such as political elections or scientific discoveries.
Memecoins and politics
In the last year, interest in American politics has given rise to a category of memecoins called PolitiFi.
In 2024, this segment has experienced notable growth and has become serious competition for traditional memecoins, as reported by CriptoNoticias.
PolitiFi, like other memecoins, seek to attract attention through the humor and creativity typical of memes, and in this case, they do so around political figures.
Surveys show another reality
The surveys, however, offer a different picture. According to the site fivethirtyeight.comwhich uses statistical models to analyze large data sets, Kamala Harris has a slight lead in the national averagesas can be seen in the following image.
However, due to the United States Electoral College system, where votes are distributed according to the size of the population of each state, these national averages are not decisive in the final result.
To ensure victory, a candidate must reach 270 electoral votes of the 538 at stake.
This phenomenon of memecoins linked to politics highlights the ability of cryptocurrencies to capture attention at key moments. For some, they represent simple speculation; for others, a new form of political participation.
As the hours tick away until election results are known, both prediction markets and the President Memecoin Index will continue to serve as an alternative barometer of public preference, a digital reflection of a national election being fought in the real world.