Snoop Dogg headlined the first-ever Cryptocurrency Inaugural Ball in Washington on Friday night
Mackenzie Sigalos
As the crypto industry celebrates the arrival of a new administration in Washington, D.C., no one is taking advantage of the coming changes faster than leaders: President Donald J. Trump.
Crypto A-listers mingled with political elites and members of Trump’s inner circle Friday night at the Crypto Ball, held at the ornate Mellon Auditorium near the White House.
Meanwhile, Trump’s net worth is about to explode from an asset that until now didn’t exist. On the same night of the party, the incoming President roll out $TRUMP, a meme coin built on the Solana platform. Its market value climbed over the weekend Past $14 billion. As with other meme coins, there is no base product. Trump told his followers in a social media post, “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: Victory!”
this website for $TRUMP indicates that 80% of the tokens are held by the Trump Organization and its affiliates.
Inside the cryptosphere are leaders of platforms that allow ordinary investors to buy into Trump’s latest projects. they include Coin library CEO Brian Armstrong and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell.
Trump isn’t done yet after his symbolic move.
Sunday is coming introduce $MELANIA, named after the First Lady. The token quickly surged over 40%, becoming worth over $2 billion. Both Trump and Melania’s coins have fallen significantly from their highs.
And then there are world free financeis a decentralized finance project supported by the Trump family, which increased the price of its token from 1.5 cents to 5 cents and issued an additional 5 billion tokens for sale. The project initially launched in September and has raised over $300 million in total sales to date, According to blockchain company Arkham Intelligence.
The Trump family received 75% of World Liberty’s cryptocurrency revenue, According to the founding documents of the project. On-chain data shows millions of dollars worth of tokens moved to Coinbase’s institutional custody provider.
“We are making routine adjustments to our crypto assets as part of regular financial management, paying fees and expenses and meeting working capital needs,” World Liberty said in a statement.
CNBC reached out to Donald Trump and Melania Trump earlier Monday but did not receive a response.
“Reign of Terror”
The Trump family’s net worth soared by billions in 48 hours based on holdings of their fledgling digital asset, underscoring the unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies and the president’s use of his fame, power and relationship with Trump The capabilities of the Pu family’s new partnership.
Broader market enthusiasm has been reflected in prices BitcoinIt soared to nearly $110,000 hours before the inauguration. Cryptocurrency industry leaders and investors emerged as some of Trump’s biggest supporters in the campaign in an effort to influence future policy and loosen restrictive regulations imposed during the Biden administration. In July, Trump issued keynote At the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
Digital asset entrepreneurs, politicians and members of Trump’s inner circle hit the red carpet at the first-ever cryptocurrency inaugural ball in Washington on Friday.
Mackenzie Sigalos
“The reign of terror against cryptocurrencies is over,” David Sacks, a prominent Silicon Valley investor and the new White House artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency czar, told a packed Washington ballroom on Friday night. His comments drew applause that echoed beneath the towering columns of Mellon Auditorium.
Sachs, an early critic of Trump who began supporting Trump last year, said the events of Jan. 6, 2021, “disqualified” him as a national candidate. he Hosted a high-profile fundraiser at his San Francisco mansion June, and regularly promotes Republican candidates on the popular “All-In” podcast.
“The beginning of U.S. cryptocurrency innovation is just beginning,” Sachs added on Friday.
Discussions about the new $TRUMP coin are very active on X (formerly Twitter). Industry insiders and surrounding people have raised many doubts about this.
Gabor Gurbacs, founder of digital asset firm Pointsville, wrote: “Trump needs to fire his cryptocurrency advisors from top to bottom and replace them with people who know what they are doing.” in the post “Meme coins have cost the United States, the president and his family a lot of credibility, and the consequences haven’t even begun.”
Mark Cuban, the billionaire former tech entrepreneur and part-owner of the Dallas Mavericks, commented on the apparent lawlessness of it all. Cuban, longtime independent, becomes outspoken supporter of Democratic nominee Kamala Harrissaid these coins are particularly harmful to the cryptocurrency industry as it attempts to prove its legitimacy.
“Hello every scam targeting everyone and anyone who knows nothing about crypto,” he wrote.
But Trump’s new coin wasn’t much of a topic at pre-inauguration gatherings. Instead, the debate is over the broader impact of Trump’s policies, which promise to break years of regulatory gridlock under the Biden administration.
“Two years ago, everyone thought cryptocurrencies were dead,” said one attendee, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about the topic. “A year ago we were looking for help and this weekend we’re on top of the world.”
Cryptocurrency companies showed their enthusiasm by making huge donations to Trump’s first fund. Ripple donated $5 million in digital tokens, and Coinbase, Kraken and Circle each donated $1 million. Internet Brokerage Robin Hood Donate US$2 million.
Ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the first-ever Crypto Ball was held at the Mellon Auditorium in Washington.
Mackenzie Sigalos
Both Coinbase and Kraken have Fighting the SEC in court. Robinhood received a Wells notice in May related to its U.S. crypto business, which is typically one of the last steps before the SEC issues formal charges. Ripple has been engaged in a years-long legal battle with the SEC and outgoing chairman Gary Gensler.
“The question now is, how do we capitalize on this momentum?” Ripple chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty attended Friday night’s festivities. “How do we seize this momentum and move forward to really deliver on the promise that I think the new administration has made to make the United States the cryptocurrency capital of the world?”
Adroti would like to see a coalition formed to discuss unified policy priorities.
“Ultimately, Congress is going to own the policy, and we can’t dictate to Congress what the policy should be,” Adroti said. Congress, it would be great to have some agreement on priorities,” he noted, noting that the industry has put forward proposals in the past.
Inside the encryption ball
The party has the support of a large number of lawmakers, all from the Republican side. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senators Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz and Cynthia Loomis were also present. Former House members French Hill and Patrick McHenry arrived to express their support.
clean spark CEO Zach Bradford Meeting He, who held a private roundtable with Trump to discuss Bitcoin mining, said he spoke with Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the event.
“We talked about Bitcoin mining and Bitcoin and how Bitcoin mining has become a central point in business,” Bradford told CNBC.
Bradford said he highlighted the potential of Bitcoin mining as an important economic driver to Lutnick.
“From a net production perspective, it’s a positive revenue stream,” Bradford said. “But we also contribute a lot of tax revenue to the states where we do business.”
Bradford said Lutnick was “excited” about it and described him as “the guy who got the Bitcoin.”
Scott Bessent, who could be the next Treasury secretary, walked through the main ballroom floor and posed for photos with attendees.
Koh Harada, chief operating officer of privacy-focused blockchain Aleo, said Bessent was “very vague about things, but the fact that he was there was very interesting.”
Aleo, which has raised more than $200 million in funding from investors including SoftBank and Andreessen Horowitz, chose to form in the United States, while many rivals have chosen to operate in offshore jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands to avoid various Regulatory Impact.
“We didn’t open a store in the U.S. on a whim,” Harada said. In talking to legal and compliance experts, the company realized that “the United States is the best fertilizer for tech — period,” he said.
Aleo combines privacy-focused features with smart contract capabilities, Harada added, has become a go-to resource for other startups looking to return to the United States. The company chose Wyoming, a state known for its cryptocurrency-friendly policies.
“Wyoming is the most welcoming state to cryptocurrencies,” Harada said. “They have forward-looking policies and even established a blockchain research center at the University of Wyoming.”
The most important exchange of the evening took place in a private conversation in the MAGA Inc. VIP reception lounge.
Mackenzie Sigalos
Also present on Friday were micro strategy Founder Michael Saylor wore his signature orange bow tie, a nod to Bitcoin’s iconic color. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Coinbase executives, including global head of policy Faryar Shirzad, interacted with guests.
The Winklevoss twins chatted in a panel that included Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon and his colleague Sriram Krishnan, who He recently resigned as general partner of the firm to join Sacks’ task force. Bo Hines, Trump’s appointee as chairman of the President’s Digital Asset Advisory Council, also attended. He will report directly to Sacks.
While Snoop Dogg performed in the main ballroom, venture capitalist Katie Haun was engrossed in conversation with Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz. Other musical guests Rick Ross and Soulja Boy Charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission In 2023, he made even more people happy by illegally promoting crypto tokens without disclosing that he was being paid.
Issue wristbands to guests based on their status. Black wristbands grant general admission, while gold wristbands grant access to VIP boxes. The white band was given the most exclusive treatment. General admission is $2,500, with some sponsors paying $1 million to gain access to the ground-floor lounge behind the stage in the main ballroom.
Under the tight guard of security personnel, Donald Trump Jr. wore customized MAGA buttons on his shirt and quickly entered the innermost room of the VIP area. The room was blocked off by rotating bodyguards and only certain guests were allowed to enter. He, along with Sachs and Speaker Johnson, can be seen talking to mining company CEO Fred Thiel Mara Holdings.
Thiel shared details of a blockchain initiative his company launched with Johnson earlier in the day, which aims to symbolize the intersection of cryptocurrencies and politics.
“We minted a block on the blockchain with President Trump’s likeness, created entirely through transactions,” Thiel said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and MALA Executive Fred Thiel. Johnson had seen a text message earlier in the day showing President Donald Trump receiving a photo of the Trump47 Bitcoin block minted by Mara.
Fred Thiel
The so-called Trump47 block embeds Trump’s face into the Bitcoin blockchain, creating a lasting digital tribute to the president.
“We posted it on Friday morning and it went viral,” Thiel said. He added that Johnson was “so impressed” that he sent Trump a photo of it.
Tracy Hoyos-López, a former California prosecutor, is one of them Trump praised for supporting Bitcoinalso attended the event.
“Don’t mess with cryptocurrencies,” Hoyos-López, who helped plan the night’s festivities as Snoop Dogg performed live, told CNBC. “Our events are a symbol of who we are in the world.”
