An assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday has the market on edge heading into Monday.
As in many times of political and economic uncertainty, traders will likely seek more stable investments with less volatility like gold — but others are gunning for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin surged to more than $60,000 following the attack. The assassination attempt led to the death of one spectator and critically injured two others attending the rally. Trump is safe after the shooting, and the alleged shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, is deceased, according to a press release from the U.S. Secret Service. Trump is still slated to speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week.
Traders likely headed to Bitcoin — which trades continuously and was just below $60,000 at the time of publication — for various reasons. Some are likely anticipating that the assassination attempt will embolden Trump’s chances of winning the U.S. presidential election in November. Others may have fled to Bitcoin as an impulse reaction to the political instability.
This election year, Trump has declared himself as a “crypto candidate,” and has said he would accept donations in Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, Solana, and other cryptocurrencies (President Joe Biden has also said he’d consider accepting crypto donations). Even though Trump’s position on cryptocurrency represents a significant U-turn from just a few years ago when he denounced Bitcoin as “a scam against the U.S. dollar,” he has increasingly received support from cryptocurrency leaders and those in the community ahead of November’s vote.
Outside of the crypto markets, traders are expected to turn to so-called safe-haven assets, like gold and the Swiss franc, that are less reactive to political and economic uncertainty.
Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank, told Yahoo! Finance that “this weekend’s events will likely cause increased volatility on Monday open both in stock and bond markets. We expect to see flight to safe havens like Swiss franc and gold. Bitcoin has reacted positively to the news as a result of kneejerk flight to safety.”
Another asset people may be watching is Trump Media stock. The stock has been incredibly volatile since its debut in late March, and was up just over 1% in after-hours trading Sunday at the time of publication.
Vinamrata Chaturvedi contributed to this article.