US President Donald Trump hosted a dinner for firms pledging funds to construct a brand new ballroom within the White Home, with attendees reportedly together with Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and executives from Coinbase and Ripple.
In line with 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 reported to be aimed 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, Gemini and the White Home for touch upon the quantity of the donations, however had not acquired a response on the time of publication.
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 experiences 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 reported 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 below Trump, reportedly attended as nicely.
Crypto firms deepening ties to administration, getting politically concerned
Earlier than the Wednesday fundraising dinner, representatives of crypto firms, together with CEOs and executives, had visited lawmakers and regulators in Washington, D.C., as a part of a push towards larger adoption of digital property 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 business 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 trade additionally donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, with Armstrong meeting with the president one-on-one in November.
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