A gunshot at a Pennsylvania rally moved crypto markets before a single news anchor had caught their breath.

On July 13, 2024, a shooter opened fire at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was grazed on the ear and rushed offstage by the Secret Service. What happened next had nothing to do with policy and everything to do with odds. Prediction markets shifted almost instantly, pricing in a stronger chance of a Trump win, and bitcoin, the asset most tied to his campaign promises on crypto, rallied right alongside those odds.

Bitcoin went from around $58,000 before the shooting to a high near $63,218 within hours, as reported by Fortune. I find it strange that a market can move that fast on a single event nobody could have modeled. Bitcoin later blew far past that level once Trump actually won and crypto policy became real rather than speculative. That weekend was just the market placing an early bet.

That’s today in crypto history, a wild one. See you tomorrow.