With cocktails and Snoop Dogg, crypto business celebrates Trump inauguration

By Douglas Gillison, Suzanne McGee and Michelle Value

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cryptocurrency executives swilled cocktails and danced to rap famous person Snoop Dogg on Friday night time as they celebrated the approaching inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose administration has promised main adjustments in crypto coverage. 

After years of butting heads with Washington policymakers, executives from crypto firms together with Crypto.com, Kraken, and Exodus partied on the first-ever crypto inauguration ball held on the 90-year-old Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium beneath towering 62-foot (19-metre) columns. 

Clad in black tie and ball robes, visitors noshed on miniature lobster rolls and Trump’s favored McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) burgers and fries, in keeping with social media posts and two attendees who spoke to Reuters. Along with Snoop Dogg, the leisure lineup featured rappers Rick Ross and Soulja Boy, the attendees mentioned.

One in every of many Washington celebrations forward of Trump’s Monday swearing-in, the crypto gala marks a shocking turnaround for an business that has been within the Biden administration’s crosshairs. Two years in the past, it appeared to be on the point of extinction amid the collapse of FTX.

Trump, who didn’t attend the gala, courted crypto marketing campaign money with guarantees to be a “crypto president,” and is predicted subsequent week to challenge government orders geared toward lowering crypto regulatory roadblocks and selling widespread adoption of digital property. 

“There have been a variety of darkish years,” mentioned Les Borsai, co-founder of the crypto funding adviser Wave Digital Belongings, who flew in from Los Angeles. “If this signifies what the long run seems like … I feel that is the optimism we have been ready for.” 

Swag included “Make Bitcoin Nice Once more” purple baseball caps, and American flag pins with the image for Gemini, an occasion sponsor and crypto alternate based by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who backed Trump’s marketing campaign. 

SOLD OUT

Tickets bought out at $2,500 every for common admission, the ball’s web site mentioned, however for a cool $100,000, VIP packages supplied face time with tech entrepreneur David Sacks, Trump’s incoming crypto czar and the gala’s emcee, in keeping with attendees and crypto media shops.  

About 1,500 folks attended.

A number of different officers from Trump’s incoming administration have been additionally current, the attendees mentioned. Different sponsors included the digital asset division of Robinhood (NASDAQ:HOOD), MicroStrategy and Crypto.com, in keeping with the occasion web site. Sponsors had cocktails named of their honor.

“Final night time was really a testomony to how mainstream crypto has grow to be,” mentioned JP Richardson, CEO of Exodus, which co-hosted the ball.

Whereas the business was reveling, Trump on Friday night time expanded his cryptocurrency pursuits, which already embody World Liberty Monetary, by launching a digital token branded with a picture from his tried assassination in July. 

The value of that “meme coin” was round $27 by Saturday afternoon, giving it a market capitalization of about $5.5 billion, in keeping with CoinMarketCap.

Nervous about fraud and cash laundering, President Joe Biden’s regulators cracked down on crypto firms, suing exchanges Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN), Binance, Kraken and dozens extra in federal courtroom. Trump’s crypto coverage workforce is taking form, along with his crypto-friendly Securities and Trade Fee chair choose Paul Atkins anticipated to forge main crypto coverage adjustments. 

“The crypto voter confirmed up within the election and this occasion signifies a turning level for crypto coverage in the US,” Jonathan Jachym, world head of coverage at Kraken, mentioned in a press release. 

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, hit new data above $107,000 in December on pleasure over Trump’s coverage adjustments.

“We’re proud to assist the Crypto Ball (NYSE:BALL) … and sit up for supporting the brand new administration to advance innovation in digital property,” mentioned a spokesperson for Crypto.com, including the corporate’s president of North America, Matt David, attended.

Representatives for the Trump administration, Robinhood, MicroStrategy, Gemini and the occasion’s different two hosts, BTC Inc. and Stand With Crypto, didn’t instantly remark. Sacks didn’t instantly return an emailed request for remark. Representatives for Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross and Soulja Boy couldn’t instantly be reached on Saturday.