WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump took workplace in January pledging to “make America the crypto capital of the world.” He has since harnessed vast swaths of the federal authorities to bolster the industry — all whereas raking in huge sums of money for his family’s business.
By some estimates, crypto ventures now account for almost 40% of the Trump Group’s $2.9 billion internet value. However the Republican president’s championing of the industry has been simply as huge a boon for a lot of of the industry’s high names.
Many have seen their income and political standing soar, whereas investigations of potential wrongdoing and different authorized entanglements led by the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Democratic President Joe Biden, have largely fallen away.
Right here’s a look at a few of the crypto industry’s high leaders and their ties to Trump:
Justin Solar
Eric Trump, Govt VP of The Trump Group, from proper, speaks as Co-founder of World Liberty Monetary Zach Witkoff and Founding father of TRON Justin Solar look on throughout Token 2049, a Crypto occasion, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Might 1, 2025. (AP Photograph/Altaf Qadri, File)
A Chinese language-born crypto entrepreneur and founding father of the cryptocurrency platform Tron, Solar is finest recognized for purchasing a chunk of conceptual artwork consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall for $6.2 million and subsequently eating the banana.
Ties to Trump: Solar was the high investor in Trump’s meme coin, $Trump, and secured the high spot at the president’s latest crypto dinner, which was held at Trump’s golf course simply outdoors Washington. Solar posted a professionally produced video of himself receiving a $100,000 gold watch that Trump’s meme coin awarded to the high 4 traders. Solar additionally lately bragged about his shut ties to the White Home, posting in Chinese language on X “It’s all true” over a collection of posts itemizing his hyperlinks to the president and his meme coin. Solar was sued by the Securities and Change Fee beneath Biden for working to artificially inflate the worth of crypto, an investigation that has been paused since Trump took workplace. Solar was an early and vital investor in World Liberty Monetary, a crypto enterprise Trump and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. launched in September. The president’s most up-to-date financial disclosure report reveals he made greater than $57 million final 12 months from World Liberty Monetary, which has launched USD1, a stablecoin pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. greenback.
Michael Saylor
The co-founder and chair of Technique, previously often known as MicroStrategy, Saylor is one among bitcoin’s most outstanding and outspoken evangelists. He owns a yacht as soon as featured on “Entourage,” and his is the most high-profile bitcoin treasury company, which is a kind of agency primarily targeted on shopping for and holding bitcoin as its enterprise mannequin. Technique at the moment holds greater than 2% of all excellent bitcoins in circulation and is continually shopping for extra.
Ties to Trump: Trump Media, the mum or dad firm of the president’s social media platform, Reality Social, has introduced it would elevate $2.5 billion from institutional traders to buy bitcoin in an try to construct up a cryptocurrency reserve, comparable to what Saylor’s firm is finest recognized for. Saylor met in January with Eric Trump at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Seaside, Florida, and the president’s son has spoken publicly about how he and Saylor have been mates who knew one another in New York 20 years in the past. Saylor additionally attended the president’s first crypto summit at the White House in March. “All of us owe him an incredible debt of gratitude,” Eric Trump mentioned of Saylor, praising him at the latest annual bitcoin convention in Las Vegas as an efficient spokesperson for the crypto group.
Changpeng Zhao
Recognized universally as CZ, Zhao is founder and former CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency change. He was sentenced final 12 months to four months in prison for failing to cease criminals from utilizing the platform to transfer cash linked to baby intercourse abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. Zhao was launched in September.
Ties to Trump: World Liberty Monetary recently announced that an funding fund in the United Arab Emirates could be utilizing $2 billion value of USD1 to buy a stake in Binance. Zhao additionally has publicly mentioned that he’s requested Trump for a pardon that might nullify his conviction.
Brian Armstrong
Co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency change, Armstrong has been a key determine in the crypto industry’s push into politics.
Ties to Trump: Armstrong and Coinbase have been major donors to a political motion committee that helped Trump and different pro-crypto candidates. He met with Trump weeks after Election Day and attended the White Home crypto summit. Coinbase employed Trump’s former marketing campaign supervisor, Chris LaCivita, to its Global Advisory Council. Trump additionally addressed, by way of prerecorded video message, Coinbase’s State of Crypto Summit this month.
The Winklevoss Twins
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss based the Gemini cryptocurrency change and are most well-known to the common public for suing Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Fb, an vital plot level in the film “The Social Community.” In 2023, Biden’s SEC sued Gemini for selling unregistered securities, one other case that’s been paused since Trump took workplace.
Ties to Trump: The twins every pledged $1 million donations to the Trump marketing campaign, in addition to lavish donations to Elon Musk’s political group – although a few of the donations to Trump’s marketing campaign have been returned as a result of the Winklevoss brothers had violated federal limits. They have been invited to Trump’s crypto summit and praised the president’s method to the sector then. Addressing the crypto convention in Las Vegas, Vice President JD Vance mentioned the brothers “actually helped break the dam” and persuade tech sector leaders to assist Trump’s marketing campaign. “I believe they have been a few of the first huge names in Silicon Valley to take that step, and a complete host of individuals adopted them,” Vance mentioned.
David Bailey
Bailey is the CEO of BTC Inc., an influential holding firm with ventures all through the crypto industry together with Bitcoin Journal. He lately raised $300 million to launch Nakamoto, a publicly traded bitcoin funding firm.
Ties to Trump: Baily served as a crypto adviser to Trump’s marketing campaign. Vance additionally saluted Bailey at the Las Vegas convention, saying he was “grateful for every little thing you’ve finished for the bitcoin group.”
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Related Press author Alan Suderman contributed to this report.
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Comply with the AP’s protection of the crypto industry at https://apnews.com/hub/cryptocurrency.
