Political meme coins are making moves as the U.S. prepares to go to the polls on Tuesday, with the PolitiFi category up by 7% over the past day, according to CoinGecko.
One day out from the U.S. presidential election, Trump-themed meme coins are up by double-digits over the past 24 hours, while those linked to his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, are down.
Market leader Maga (TRUMP) has leaped 25.4% to a market cap of $167 million over the past 24 hours, while Maga Hat (MAGA) is up 35.5% and Doland Tremp (TREMP) has climbed 18.3%. By comparison, the largest Kamala Harris meme coin (KAMA) has tanked 21%, while Kumala Herris (MAWA) is down 6.5%.
However, the daily price movement doesn’t appear to reflect broader underlying trends, with KAMA up almost 60% in the past week, while TRUMP, MAGA and TREMP have both slipped by double digits.
The weekend saw the publication of a shock poll out of Iowa from veteran pollster Ann Selzer, which favored Harris over Trump by three percentage points. In the wake of the poll, Trump’s odds among bettors on prediction market Polymarket sharply declined, with 59.1% of bettors now favoring Trump to win the election.
Meme coins and elections
It’s worth noting that it's likely that meme coins tied to the loser of tomorrow’s election will see a significant drop in value. For example, when Tim Walz was announced as Harris’ VP pick in August, a token related to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a contender for the position, tanked 94% in the half hour following the announcement.
Outside of the biggest political meme coins by market cap, TrumpCoin (DJT), the Barron Trump-linked meme coin that plunged by 92% in August, has oddly climbed 94.8% on the day and 185% over the week.
DJT launched in June followed by a flurry of claims that it was Donald Trump’s official meme coin. It was eventually revealed that Martin Shkreli created the token, claiming that the former president’s son Barron Trump created DJT with him. While the matter was furiously debated online, the token dramatically crashed in August as one wallet sold 20% of the total token supply in one transaction.
Enter PNUT
The political meme coin space has also seen the arrival of a surprise new entrant, after a beloved pet squirrel, Peanut, was euthanized by New York state authorities. The incident was swiftly politicized, causing a Solana meme coin, PNUT, to skyrocket over the weekend. On Sunday night, Trump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance, claimed that the Republican contender is “fired up” about the story.
Meanwhile, another animal is making headlines, as viral baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng predicted that Donald Trump will win the U.S. Presidential Election. This came as the Khao Kheow Open Zoo presented Moo Deng with Harris and Trump inscribed fruit—with the baby hippo picking Trump’s name to munch on.
In turn, Solana meme coin MOODENG is up 6.5% on the day, although it remains down by 27.5% over the week.