A record $239 million was raised from companies and top managers for the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, Fortune reports, citing a report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Of these, $18 million came from participants in the crypto market.
The largest donor among crypto companies was the XRP token company Ripple Labs, which transferred almost $4.9 million. This is the second largest contribution among all participants, more than only the chicken producer Pilgrim's ($ 5 million).
(A list of executives and companies from the cryptocurrency sector that sponsor the Trump Inauguration Foundation. Source: Fortune)
Robinhood broker and Kraken exchange donated $2 million each. Another $1 million each was contributed to the Coinbase exchange and Crypto.com, the issuer of the USDС stablecoin, Circle, and the venture capital firm Paradigm (its co-founder Fred Erzam separately sent another $1 million).
There are dozens of well-known crypto brands and their founders on the list. So, the Winklevoss brothers (Gemini) and Jesse Powell (Kraken) supported the Trump campaign with personal contributions of $1 million each.
The total contribution of the crypto industry turned out to be comparable to donations from the largest lobbyists in the United States. Other major donors include ExxonMobil, Google, and a group promoting the vaping industry. The inauguration financing became part of a larger campaign: in 2024, the crypto business in the United States spent over $130 million to support loyal congressional candidates.
Among the well—known cryptocurrency companies and figures on the list are Hayden Adams ($245,000), the head of the largest decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap, Consensys ($100,000), the developer of the infrastructure for the Ethereum blockchain, which is behind the creation of the largest MetaMask crypto wallet, as well as the Linea second-level blockchain, and the developer of the popular Apecoin NFT project. (APE) — Yoga Labs company ($100 thousand).
Also among the well-known donors: the company behind the creation of one of the largest Solana blockchain projects, Solana Labs ($1 million); representatives of Ondo Finance ($1 million), a project from the Real world assets sector (Real world assets, RWA), which is one of the largest issuers of tokenized securities. according to the type of US government bonds; the fund of billionaire Mike Novogratz Galaxy Digital, which was awarded with a donation of $ 1 million.
Under the previous administration, the crypto business faced many risks from the US financial regulator represented by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The reason for this was that some digital coins fell under the definition of securities and SEC regulation.
More than 40 cryptocurrencies, including such large assets as Solana (SOL), Carbano (ADA) and BNB (BNB) from Binance, were classified by the regulator as unregistered securities. The total market capitalization of these coins is over $230 billion, according to CoinGecko. At the same time, the aggregator does not take into account the XRP (XR) token from Ripple with a capitalization of $124 billion.
As part of his election campaign, Trump promised that if he won the election, he would dismiss the then-current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler (Gensler left office on the day of Trump's inauguration). And many crypto companies that became sponsors of Trump's inauguration were participants in cases or investigations initiated by the SEC.
Paul Atkins, a businessman who supports cryptocurrencies, replaced Gary Gensler at the head of the department. On April 21, 2025, he took the oath of office as the 34th Chairman of the SEC. Atkins was previously a member of the SEC and worked as a consultant in the field of fintech and digital assets. He also advised the Reserve Rights Foundation— the organization behind the RSR token. As head of the SEC, Atkins is expected to develop permanent standards for regulating digital assets in the United States.
Thus, the crypto business has rallied around Trump's candidacy. In addition, the leaders were fighting for a place on the advisory board on cryptocurrencies. As Bloomberg wrote, citing its own sources, this is how crypto companies could influence the political decisions of the new administration.
Starting around February 2025, the SEC unilaterally or jointly with crypto companies began to terminate one after another the proceedings and investigations initiated under Gensler.
Despite the criticism of Gensler, one of the most high-profile cases in the crypto industry was initiated by Jay Clayton, who resigned as head of the SEC in 2020. Remarkably, Trump appointed Clayton. The trial concerned Ripple Labs, which allegedly sold unregistered securities in the form of XRP tokens.
The companies and representatives who have claims from the SEC and donated to Trump's inauguration include Ripple, broker Robinhood, crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, the Uniswap exchange represented by its head Hayden Adams, as well as the MetaMask crypto wallet developed by Consensys.
