Snoop Dogg was the lead act on the first-ever Crypto Inaugural Ball held in Washington on Friday evening.
MacKenzie Sigalos
Because the crypto industry celebrates the arrival of a latest administration in Washington, D.C., no person is taking quicker advantage of the approaching changes than the person leading the charge: President Donald J. Trump.
On Friday night, crypto A-listers rubbed elbows with political elites and members of Trump’s inner circle on the Crypto Ball, held on the opulent Mellon Auditorium, just down the road from the White House.
Meanwhile, Trump’s net value was about to blow up from an asset that, as much as that time, didn’t exist. The identical night of the party, the incoming president launched $TRUMP, a meme coin built on the Solana platform. Its market cap over the weekend climbed past $14 billion. Like with other meme coins, there is no underlying product. Trump told his followers in a social media post, “It is time to have fun every part we stand for: WINNING!”
The website for $TRUMP says 80% of the coins are held by the Trump Organization and affiliates.
Contained in the Crypto Ball were among the leaders of the platforms allowing extraordinary investors to purchase into Trump’s newest project. They included Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell.
Trump wasn’t done after one token.
On Sunday got here the introduction of $MELANIA, named after the primary lady. The coin quickly spiked greater than 40%, surpassing $2 billion in value. Each the Trump and Melania coins have dropped significantly from their highs.
Then there’s World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance project endorsed by the Trump family, which hiked its token price from 1.5 cents to five cents and released an extra 5 billion tokens on the market. The project, initially launched in September, has raised greater than $300 million in total sales to date, based on blockchain firm Arkham Intelligence.
The Trump family gets 75% of World Liberty’s crypto coin revenue, based on the project’s founding document. On-chain data shows thousands and thousands of dollars value of token transfers to Coinbase’s institutional custody provider.
“We’re making routine movements of our crypto holdings as part of normal treasury management, payment of fees and expenses, and to handle working capital requirements,” World Liberty said in a press release.
CNBC reached out to Donald and Melania Trump earlier Monday and didn’t receive a response.
‘Reign of terror’
Within the period of 48 hours, the Trump family’s net value surged by billions of dollars, based on holdings of its just-launched digital assets, underscoring the unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies and the president’s ability to make use of his fame, power and newfound partnership with the nascent industry to counterpoint himself, his family and his allies on the flip of a switch.
Broader market enthusiasm has been expressed in the value of bitcoin, which surged to an all-time high hours before the inauguration to almost $110,000. Crypto industry leaders and investors emerged as a few of Trump’s biggest supporters within the campaign in an effort to influence future policies and to ease the restrictive regulations imposed through the Biden administration. In July, Trump delivered the keynote on the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
Digital asset entrepreneurs, politicians, and members of Trump’s inner circle hit the red carpet on the first-ever Crypto Inaugural Ball in Washington on Friday.
MacKenzie Sigalos
“The reign of terror against crypto is over,” David Sacks, a distinguished Silicon Valley investor and the brand new White House AI and crypto czar, told the packed D.C. ballroom on Friday night. His comments were met with applause that echoed beneath the Mellon Auditorium’s soaring columns.
Sacks, an earlier Trump critic who said the events of Jan. 6, 2021, had “disqualified” him from being a candidate on the national level, threw his weight behind Trump last yr. He hosted a high-profile fundraiser at his San Francisco mansion in June and often promoted the Republican candidate on the favored “All-In” podcast.
“The start of innovation in America for crypto has just begun,” Sacks added on Friday.
On X, formerly Twitter, conversations were lighting up concerning the latest $TRUMP coin. There was loads of skepticism from those in and across the industry.
“Trump needs to fireside his crypto advisors, from top to bottom and replace with individuals who know what they’re doing,” wrote Gabor Gurbacs, founding father of digital asset firm Pointsville, in a post on X. “The memecoins cost the US, the presidency and his family lots of credibility and the results have not even began.”
Mark Cuban, the billionaire former tech entrepreneur and part owner of the Dallas Mavericks, commented on the apparent lawlessness of all of it. Cuban, a longtime independent who became a vocal supporter of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, said the coins are particularly harmful to the crypto industry in its effort to prove its legitimacy.
“Hello every scam targeted at everyone and anyone who has no clue about crypto,” he wrote.
But on the pre-inauguration party, Trump’s latest coin wasn’t much of a subject. Somewhat, the chatter centered on the broader implications of Trump’s policies, which promised to dismantle years of regulatory gridlock within the Biden administration.
“Two years ago, everyone thought crypto was dead,” said one attendee who asked to not be named so as to speak candidly on the subject. “A yr ago, we were begging for help, and this weekend, we’re on top of the world.”
Crypto firms made substantial contributions to Trump’s inaugural fund, signaling their enthusiasm. Ripple donated $5 million in digital tokens, while Coinbase, Kraken, and Circle each gave $1 million. Online brokerage Robinhood contributed $2 million.
Contained in the first-ever Crypto Ball on the Mellon Auditorium in Washington ahead of the Donald Trump Inauguration.
MacKenzie Sigalos
Coinbase and Kraken have each been battling the SEC in court. Robinhood received a Wells Notice in May related to its U.S. crypto business, which is usually considered one of the ultimate steps before the SEC issues formal charges. Ripple has been in a years-long legal fight with SEC and outgoing Chairman Gary Gensler.
“The query now’s, what will we do with this momentum?” said Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty, who attended the Friday night festivities. “How will we take that momentum and move forward to actually create the promise that I feel this latest administration has of constructing the U.S. the crypto capital of the world?”
Alderoty desires to see a coalition formed to debate unified policy priorities.
“Ultimately, Congress will own the policy, and we will not dictate to Congress what the policy must be,” Alderoty said. “It will be great if, ahead of that, within the face of probably the most crypto-friendly Congress we have ever had, there may very well be some alignment on what the priorities are,” Alderoty said, noting that the industry has splintered previously when proposals have been introduced.
Contained in the Crypto Ball
There was a healthy dose of lawmaker support on the party, all from the Republican side of the aisle. House Speaker Mike Johnson was there, together with Senators Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz and Cynthia Lummis. Former House members French Hill and Patrick McHenry arrived to indicate their support.
Cleanspark CEO Zach Bradford, who has been meeting with Trump in private roundtables to debate bitcoin mining, said he spoke with Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick to be Secretary of Commerce, on the event.
“We talked about bitcoin mining and the way bitcoin, but in addition bitcoin mining, generally is a central point of commerce,” Bradford told CNBC.
Bradford said he emphasized to Lutnick the potential for bitcoin mining to be a big economic driver.
“It is a positive revenue generator from a net production perspective,” Bradford said. “But we’re also contributing significant tax revenues for the states where we operate.”
Bradford said Lutnick is “enthusiastic about it,” describing him as “anyone that gets bitcoin.”
Scott Bessent, more likely to be the following Treasury secretary, made his way through the most important floor of the ballroom and took photos with attendees.
Koh Harada, COO of Aleo, a privacy-focused blockchain, said Bessent was “pretty coy about things, however the undeniable fact that he was even there was very interesting.”
Aleo, which has raised over $200 million from investors including SoftBank and Andreessen Horowitz, selected to ascertain within the U.S. while many rivals opted to launch from offshore jurisdictions just like the Cayman Islands as a shield from various regulations.
“We didn’t arrange shop within the U.S. on a whim,” Harada said. In talking to a mixture of legal and compliance experts, the corporate realized that “America is the most effective fertilizer for tech — period,” he said.
Aleo, which mixes privacy-focused functionality with smart contract capabilities, has develop into a go-to resource for other startups seeking to return to the U.S., Harada added. The corporate picked Wyoming, a state known for its crypto-friendly policies.
“Wyoming stood out as probably the most welcoming state for crypto,” Harada said. “They’ve created forward-thinking policies and are even establishing blockchain research centers on the University of Wyoming.”
It was the side conversations within the MAGA Inc. VIP Reception greenroom where probably the most significant exchanges of the evening unfolded.
MacKenzie Sigalos
Also in attendance on Friday was MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor, wearing his trademark orange bow tie, a nod to bitcoin’s iconic color. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and top execs at Coinbase, including global policy head Faryar Shirzad, mingled with guests.
The Winklevoss twins chatted in a gaggle that included Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz and his colleague, Sriram Krishnan, who recently left his role as a general partner on the firm to hitch Sacks’ task force. Bo Hines, Trump’s selection to steer the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, was also present. He’ll report on to Sacks.
While Snoop Dogg performed within the most important ballroom, enterprise capitalist Katie Haun was engrossed in conversation with Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz. Other musical guests Rick Ross and Soulja Boy, who was charged by the SEC in 2023 for illegally promoting a crypto token without disclosing he was paid, kept the larger crowd entertained.
Guests were issued wristbands based on status. Black wristbands signified general admission and gold allowed entry to a VIP balcony. White bands granted probably the most exclusive perks. General admission cost $2,500, and a few sponsors paid $1 million for access to the greenroom on the bottom floor tucked behind the stage within the most important ballroom.
Tightly guarded by security, Donald Trump Jr. donned custom MAGA buttons on his shirt as he swiftly made his way into the innermost chamber of the VIP section, a room barricaded by a rotating bouncer and only allowing in certain guests. Together with Sacks, and Speaker Johnson, he may very well be seen conversing with Fred Thiel, CEO of mining company MARA Holdings.
Thiel shared details of a blockchain initiative his company had launched earlier that day with Johnson, an effort designed to symbolize the intersection of crypto and politics.
“We minted a block on the blockchain with a portrait of President Trump, created entirely from transactions,” Thiel said.
Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, with Mara CEO Fred Thiel. Johnson seen texting President Donald Trump a photograph of the Trump47 bitcoin block minted by Mara earlier that day.
Fred Thiel
The so-called Trump47 block embedded Trump’s headshot into the Bitcoin blockchain, creating an enduring digital tribute to the president.
“We released it Friday morning, and it went viral,” Thiel said. He added that Johnson “was so impressed” that he texted Trump an image of it.
Tracy Hoyos-López, a former California prosecutor and considered one of the people credited with turning Trump pro-bitcoin, was also on the event.
“Don’t mess with crypto,” Hoyos-López, who helped to plan the evening’s celebration, told CNBC while Snoop Dogg was performing his live set. “Our event is an emblem of who we’re on the earth.”
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