
President Donald Trump had probably the most lavish inauguration week in historical past, because of a file $239 million in donations from company supporters and executives, in keeping with a Sunday submitting with the Federal Election Fee. A hefty portion got here from the crypto business, which has been one in all Trump’s most vocal supporters: Crypto corporations and their leaders gave $18 million in inauguration donations to the forty seventh president. Different massive donors embrace oil corporations like Exxon Mobil, massive tech corporations like Google, and a foyer group for the U.S. vaping business.
Ripple Labs, which has battled the Securities and Change Fee in a long-running court docket case, led the pack with nearly $4.9 million. Ripple’s donation was the second largest amongst all donors. Pilgrim’s, one of many world’s largest poultry producers, gave probably the most with its $5 million donation.
Robinhood, the net brokerage that reaps a large share of its income from crypto buying and selling, donated $2 million. Different massive donors embrace a few of the high names within the business, together with exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com. The stablecoin issuer Circle, which just lately filed to go public, and enterprise capital titan Paradigm, which noticed its property beneath administration soar to close highs in 2024, additionally donated $1 million every.
View this interactive chart on Fortune.com
Whereas many crypto corporations had already publicly disclosed their donations to Trump’s inauguration, the Sunday submitting exhibits the complete extent to which the business has showered the president with money.
Beneath former President Joe Biden, the SEC led a widespread crackdown on the crypto business because it alleged that almost all of cryptocurrencies are securities, or monetary property like shares and bonds that should adhere to strict disclosure regimes. Confronted with lawsuit after lawsuit, crypto executives amassed an unprecedented warfare chest and spent greater than $130 million to sway congressional elections and elect pro-crypto candidates.
Crypto CEOs additionally rallied round Trump, who described himself as a “pro-crypto president.” Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the cofounders of crypto trade Gemini, pledged $1 million apiece to Trump’s reelection marketing campaign. And Kraken cofounder and chairman Jesse Powell additionally donated $1 million.
After he received again the White Home, Trump ushered in a crypto-friendly administration. He employed an AI and crypto czar, approved the creation of a strategic Bitcoin and digital property reserve, and oversaw the defanging of crypto litigation items on the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, the SEC, and the Division of Justice.
The SEC has since dismissed lawsuits filed or threatened in opposition to donors to Trump’s inauguration fund, together with Coinbase, Crypto.com, Uniswap, Yuga Labs, Kraken, and Ripple.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com