Bitcoin experienced a notable upward surge during the late European morning, oscillating between $59,000 and $61,000 before ascending to approximately $61,250—marking a 24-hour gain of nearly 3%. This rise coincided with reports emerging late Wednesday, suggesting that Robert Kennedy Jr. might withdraw from the U.S. presidential race by week’s end, potentially endorsing Donald Trump, who has advocated for a pro-crypto stance if elected. Betting markets like Polymarket now assign a nearly 94% likelihood to Kennedy’s withdrawal, a significant shift from earlier in the week. The broader digital asset market also exhibited strength, with the CoinDesk 20 Index indicating an approximate 2.75% increase over the last 24 hours.

In parallel, a Wednesday report by the corporate influence watchdog Public Citizen highlighted that nearly half of all corporate political contributions in the 2024 election cycle have originated from cryptocurrency companies. The report revealed that 48% of corporate election spending—amounting to $119 million out of a total $248 million—has been driven by crypto entities such as Ripple and Coinbase. The majority of these funds have been channeled into pro-crypto super political action committees (PACs) like Fairshake, aimed at bolstering pro-crypto candidates and countering the efforts of crypto skeptics. Notably, approximately $108 million of the $203 million raised by Fairshake has come directly from crypto firms, with the remainder sourced from substantial donations by affluent individuals, including the Winklevoss twins and Brian Armstrong.

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Meanwhile, a year ago, HashKey Capital predicted that the total value locked (TVL) in ether liquid-staking derivatives (LSDs) would double from its August 2023 level to $44 billion by August 2025. Midway through this forecast period, the trend appears to be on course, with the TVL of Ether LSDs reaching $36.25 billion, and Lido capturing a dominant 70% market share, as reported by DeFiLlama. Despite the recent stagnation in ETH prices, the demand for staking continues to surge, with the validator entry queue climbing to an unprecedented high of around 7,400, according to HashKey Capital analysts in a note to CoinDesk. However, annualized staking yields have remained steady at around 3.5% for the past four months, creating a scenario where more validators are eager to participate, yet the rewards have not seen a proportional increase.