Replace (Oct. 17 at 3:41 pm UTC): This text has been up to date to incorporate an announcement from a White Home official.
US President Donald Trump hosted a dinner for corporations pledging funds to construct a brand new ballroom within the White Home, with attendees together with Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and executives from Coinbase and Ripple.
Based on a Wednesday Wall Avenue Journal report, among the many donors and attendees of the dinner on the White Home were the Winklevosses and representatives from Coinbase World and Ripple Labs. The dinner was geared toward funding for the White Home ballroom proposed by Trump in July, which was estimated to value $250 million.
The ballroom is projected so as to add about 90,000 sq. ft — 8,361 sq. meters — to the White Home. Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase, Ripple, and Gemini for touch upon the quantity of the donations, however had not acquired a response on the time of publication. A White Home official confirmed to Cointelegraph that The Wall Avenue Journal’s checklist of attendees was correct.
The fundraising dinner got here on the finish of the fifteenth day of a US authorities shutdown, when many federal businesses are working with restricted workers and staff have been furloughed. As of Thursday, there have been no studies of a deal between Democrats and Republicans in Congress to move a invoice to proceed to fund the federal government.
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Different attendees on the fundraising occasion included representatives from Meta, Google, Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Microsoft. Former Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler, at the moment working because the administrator of the Small Enterprise Administration beneath Trump, attended as nicely.
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Earlier than the Wednesday fundraising dinner, representatives of crypto corporations, together with CEOs and executives, had visited lawmakers and regulators in Washington, D.C., as a part of a push towards higher adoption of digital belongings and blockchain.
Throughout Trump’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign, the Winklevosses pledged $2 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to the then-candidate. The brothers have continued to be a presence in Washington and on the White Home by attending a signing ceremony for the GENIUS stablecoin invoice in July and donating $21 million to a pro-Trump political motion committee earlier than the 2026 midterms.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and chief authorized officer Stuart Alderoty have additionally developed shut ties to the Trump administration since his election win. The pair met with the then-president-elect in November and attended inauguration events in January, with Ripple commercials seen in metro stations throughout the town.
Garlinghouse additionally met with Trump and different trade leaders at a crypto summit on the White Home in March.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has additionally been a constant presence on Capitol Hill, meeting with US lawmakers to help the GENIUS Act and crypto market construction laws. The crypto alternate additionally donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, with Armstrong meeting with the president one-on-one in November.
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Cointelegraph by Turner Wright Coinbase, Ripple, and Gemini Attend Trump’s Ballroom Fundraiser cointelegraph.com 2025-10-16 19:16:15
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