A new Federal Election Commission (FEC) report has shown that crypto firms and stakeholders donated over $18 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration. The revelation adds a new meaning to the series of pro-crypto moves under the Trump administration.
According to FEC data, crypto donors accounted for a significant portion of the $245.27 million donated to Trump’s inauguration fund after the last presidential election. Ripple, the issuer of XRP, was the biggest donor with $4.9 million, which was more than every other company except multinational food producer Pilgrim’s, which donated $5 million.
Beyond Ripple, retail trading platform Robinhood was the next biggest crypto donor with $2 million. However, several other firms, including crypto exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com, stablecoin issuer Circle, Solana Labs, crypto venture capital firm Galaxy Digital, and tokenization platform Ondo Finance, donated $1 million each.
Cardano’s Input Output Global also donated $250,000, while Bored Ape’s Yuga Labs and Consensys donated $100,000 each. Interestingly, individuals, including Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams, Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani, Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla, and Coinbase and Paradigm co-founder Fredrick Ernest Ehrsam III, also donated significantly to the fund.
US pro-crypto moves favor Trump donors
The massive donation to the inauguration fund adds to the millions that the crypto industry had initially spent on the 2024 election. Per multiple reports, the industry was the biggest corporate spender in the election, with $134 million spent through political action committees (PACs) that supported pro-crypto candidates, including Trump.
While the Trump administration has lived up to some of the promises made during the campaign run, the new FEC report shows that the pro-crypto moves might have been more beneficial to companies that donated to Trump’s inauguration fund.
A quick scan shows that almost all the companies that donated to Trump’s inauguration have already benefited from the administration’s policy switch. For instance, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Trump has already dropped lawsuits and investigations against several of the donor companies, including Kraken, Uniswap, Consensys, Coinbase, Ripple, and Crypto.com.
Interestingly, the Digital Assets Stockpile that Trump created also included Ripple XRP, Solana SOL, and Cardano ADA. The move attracted criticisms when it was initially announced, as many did not expect these tokens to be part of the reserve.
Even crypto VC firms that donated to Trump’s inauguration have also received some recognition from the White House, with Paradigm and Multicoin Capital invited to the Crypto Summit, while other major organizations, such as the Ethereum Foundation, did not receive an invitation.
Critics claim Trump’s pro-crypto moves is self-serving
However, Trump himself might be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the crypto policy switch. According to a Forbes report, the President’s net worth has doubled in the past year due to his crypto affiliations and Truth Social.
Key among these affiliations is the World Liberty Financial (WLFI) DeFi project and the TRUMP memecoin launched a few days before his inauguration. Trump’s affiliation with these projects attracted massive liquidity to them, and the SEC guidance on memecoins and stablecoins effectively benefits both WLFI and the TRUMP memecoin.
Unsurprisingly, critics have expressed concerns about Trump’s crypto presidency. Former SEC official John Reed Stark and Duke University professor Lee Reiners recently published an op-ed in The New York Times, claiming that President Trump has stopped the SEC from regulating crypto.
They claim that the permissive environment for crypto under the Trump administration could have disastrous effects for investors and even affect traditional financial markets as the two become more connected.
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