Polymarket Goes Wild as Biden Drops Out of Race, Endorses Kamala Harris

Following weeks of increasing pressure from Democrats, President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he will drop out of the 2024 presidential race and not seek reelection. He will finish out his term, however.

"While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term," Biden wrote in a letter posted to Twitter (aka X).

Biden said he will "speak to the nation" later this week about the move. He thanked his Vice President Kamala Harris in the letter, and then in a separate tweet, endorsed her as the Democratic nominee for president.

"Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year," he wrote. "Democrats—it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this."

Polymarket, the leading crypto predictions market platform, saw wild swings in odds following the news, with Harris' chances of securing the Democratic nomination surging to 82%. In a potential election matchup, Trump currently leads on Polymarket with a 64% chance, while Harris currently sits at 31%. Nevertheless, Polymarket's bettors have Harris pipping Trump in the popular vote, at odds of 43% versus Trump's 42%.

The news initially saw the Democratic Party's odds of winning the election plunge on Polymarket, before stablizing at 36%. The Democractic VP nominee market positioned Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro as the frontrunner for the position, at odds of 32%, with the next-closest contender, North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, at 25%.

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The price of Bitcoin demonstrated volatility as the news broke, briefly dipping below $66,000 before recovering to $67,000, remaining steady on the day, according to data from CoinGecko.

PolitiFi meme coins were unsurprisingly swift to react to the news, with the Jeo Boden (BODEN) token plunging by almost 50% and the Harris-themed Kamala Horris (KAMA) token surging by over 125% on the day.

Additional reporting by Stephen Graves.