More than a million people tuned in to listen to former President Donald Trump speak to Tesla’s Elon Musk during a Spaces interview on Twitter on Monday, with many from the crypto community expecting fresh words directed toward the industry.
While the pair discussed a range of well-worn narratives, including securing the U.S.’s Southern border, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, immigration, and Vice President Kamala Harris, not a single word was uttered by the former president on the asset class.
Indeed, more than $4 million was riding on Trump mentioning a variety of words on Polymarket, the largest being “crypto” with over $800,000 awaiting a mention. Crypto fans were left wanting—although other keywords did trigger during the conversation: “MAGA,” “illegal immigrant,” and “tampon,” the latter coming up when Trump mentioned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and a law regarding feminine hygiene products he signed into law last year.
Listeners also didn’t hear “Tesla” or “Bitcoin” from Trump.
That’s despite some within the industry renewing calls for crypto to be recognized as a major political issue this year following Trump’s endorsement three months ago. Trump is hoping for another shot at the White House in November.
The former president has appealed to crypto holders on the campaign trail, accepting crypto donations in May after signaling he’s “good” with crypto now at a Mar-a-Lago event for holders of his Polygon-based NFT collection. In June, Trump specifically backed Bitcoin miners.
While crypto listeners were dissapointed, many more listeners complained, ironically, of technical issues that blocked them from gaining access to the interview recorded on Spaces—the platform’s live recording feature.
The highly anticipated conversation between X owner Musk and Trump began with the Spaces being interrupted by a DDoS attack, Musk said on Monday evening.
Musk reported the interruption to Twitter at 8:18 pm ET, saying that the system had been tested with eight million nonconcurrent listeners earlier in the day.
Musk suggested that the interview would happen with a reduced number of listeners, but after the Spaces resumed, the number of listeners surpassed 1 million accounts.
Jason Nelson contributed to reporting.
