The largest meme coin tied to United States presidential candidate Donald Trump has recovered after plummeting 16% moments after he was found guilty on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records.
The case related to Trump concealing a hush money payment to adult entertainment star Stormy Daniels, which will now move to sentencing.
Despite the conviction, Trump maintains his innocence and called the outcome of the trial a “disgrace.”
"This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump said
“This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt a political opponent [...] The real trial is going to be November 5 by the people.”
More than $130 million was wiped from the Donald Trump-linked MAGA (TRUMP) token market cap in a short 20-minute window following the news, according to CoinGecko, going from $13.48 to $11.27.
However, its price bounced back just as quickly and is now at $14.70 at the time of writing — and is now only 1.5% away from regaining its 24-hour peak of $14.92.
TRUMP had already started to trend downward two hours before the guilty verdict as jury deliberations reached the 11th hour across two days.
Super Trump (STRUMP) and Baby Trump (BABYTRUMP) also recorded similar falls on the news but didn’t recover to the same extent as TRUMP.
Biden-linked coin went up… then down
Meanwhile, the Jeo Boden (BODEN) memecoin linked to Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden, rallied 6.4% in the first 15 minutes before dumping to $0.283 — even lower than its price before Trump’s conviction, according to CoinGecko.
Crypto gamblers using the blockchain-powered prediction market Polymarket still expect Trump to defeat Biden in the upcoming election on November 5 — boasting a 54% win odds compared to Biden’s 40%.
What’s next for Trump’s court case
Trump’s case now moves to sentencing, which will mostly be controlled by Judge Juan Merchan.
Merchan will likely set deadlines for the parties to submit sentencing memorandums in which each side presents arguments in favor of its preferred punishment.
But the Trump verdict will add even "more gasoline on the fire of division," said U.S. attorney John Deaton, who expressed concern at where the country is headed.
“You're going to get both sides more entrenched" in lead up to the November election, Deaton told Cointelegraph at Consensus on May 3
Related: Donald Trump says his campaign will accept crypto
Trump has upped his efforts to win over the cryptocurrency industry in recent months.
He said he would support the right of the country's 50 million cryptocurrency holders to self-custody Bitcoin and other coins.
In April, he hosted a dinner with dozens of nonfungible token enthusiasts who bought his Mugshot NFT, claiming he “made NFTs hot again” and promised to keep local industry businesses and innovators in the country should he be elected.
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