One donor did, according to people who were at the March 1 gathering. It had a market cap of around $13 billion.

The success of $Trump is one of the starkest examples of the president benefiting from an industry his administration regulates.

Trump, who promised to be the nation’s “first crypto president,” recounted to the group the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent dismissal of cases against crypto companies, nearly a dozen by Friday. Crypto executives see that as evidence of the industry’s liberation from regulatory threats under the Biden administration that limited its growth in the U.S.

Other Mar-a-Lago guests that night included David Sacks, a longtime investor who now leads Trump’s cryptocurrency policy. Sacks said this week he had sold his crypto holdings and his company had divested its stakes in certain crypto startups. A representative for Sacks didn’t respond to a question about whether his firm retained investments in any crypto startups.

From the view of crypto executives, the Trump administration has yielded a spectacular return on their investment.

Between the election and the inauguration, Trump met with at least eight crypto executives, collecting more than $50 million in donations for his inaugural fund and related groups, according to people familiar with the meetings. He asked the donors how they wanted the industry regulated and who should do it.

During last year’s election campaign, crypto executives donated more than $16 million to pro-Trump groups. Super PACs backed by the industry spent more than $130 million on pro-crypto congressional candidates in both parties. Some also backed Harris.

President Trump speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tenn. Photo: Liam Kennedy for WSJ

Trump was president-elect when he signed the meme-coin deal, which has generated around $350 million worth of cryptocurrency USDC for entities affiliated with him, according to the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. That figure, which includes both trading fees and what are essentially sales of the $TRUMP token, doesn’t include some unrealized losses.

For now, crypto sales and trading are essentially free from federal oversight until Congress creates a new framework. Those rules are expected to be looser than ones that govern Wall Street.

Crypto executives who gathered for lunch last month in Northern California’s Los Altos Hills were jubilant. Coinbase had just announced that regulators agreed to drop a lawsuit that sought to regulate the company as a stock exchange. The SEC lawsuits had been a costly obstacle for the industry.

“The topic of conversation was how everybody’s cases have suddenly and magically disappeared,” said Trevor Traina, a crypto entrepreneur who was at the lunch. “The new badge of honor in Silicon Valley is if the SEC has dropped your case.”

This article is based on interviews with more than two dozen cryptocurrency executives and lobbyists, congressional aides and people close to Trump and his family. A White House spokeswoman said Trump was “delivering on his pledge to make America the global leader in cryptocurrency.” The Trump Organization and Trump’s super PAC didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Last weekend, after Trump previewed the creation of a strategic bitcoin reserve, bitcoin rose 9% in 24 hours to about $93,000. On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order establishing the reserve and a separate stockpile that would include smaller cryptocurrencies, a major win for the smaller tokens that had been lobbying to be a part of the stockpile.

On Friday, the Trump administration hosted a crypto event at the White House orchestrated by Sacks. It was the hottest ticket in town. Among those who wrangled an invite for the few dozen available seats was the co-founder of a crypto project backed by Trump and his sons.

Opening the summit, Sacks recounted what one crypto entrepreneur had just told him: “A year ago, you thought it’d be more likely that you’d end up in jail than at the White House.”

David Sacks speaking Friday about the White House crypto event. Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

‘Scam’ no more

Trump had criticized cryptocurrency for years, calling the industry a “scam” and a “disaster waiting to happen.”

The Biden administration, also skeptical of crypto, took the position that cryptocurrencies should fall under the same investor protection laws that apply to stocks. Biden’s SEC chair, Gary Gensler, said the industry was rife with fraud, speculation and conflicts of interest.

In 2022, a cascade of crypto-market failures and bankruptcies wiped out or froze many investors’ funds and later exposed fraud at FTX, one of the world’s biggest exchanges. Gensler responded with lawsuits against such exchanges as Coinbase and Binance, hoping courts would force them to comply with investor-protection laws.

As the campaign heated up in late 2023, crypto companies began to meet with Trump’s campaign team. They said that embracing the industry would help Trump win support from swing-state voting blocs the campaign was chasing—Black voters and young men, groups that cared about crypto.

“You had the Trump team, I think, understanding increasingly over time that this could help them in western Pennsylvania, this could help them in southwestern Michigan,” said Paul Grewal, chief legal officer to Coinbase. “This could help them knock off key demographic blocks in swing districts that would propel them to the presidency.”

Executives also began building relationships with Trump’s family throughout 2023, including with Donald Trump Jr. Trump’s 18-year-old son, Barron, also had a significant role explaining to his father why he should take crypto seriously, people in the industry said. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who had worked with crypto companies, helped usher industry executives into Trump’s circle, said Trump advisers.

Manafort, who was convicted of bank and tax fraud and later pardoned by Trump, was heralded as a VIP at an event dubbed the Crypto Ball celebrating Trump’s inauguration. He didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The companies also reached out to the Biden campaign, and, later, the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, but made little progress.

In June last year, Sacks and Traina co-hosted a fundraiser in Silicon Valley for Trump with a number of top crypto execs. During the dinner, JD Vance and Traina made the case to Trump on loosening regulations, as attendees criticized Gensler’s approach to the industry. Trump told them he wanted to be the “crypto president.”

The dinner raised $12 million for Trump. In July, he spoke at the Bitcoin 2024 conference where he pledged to fire Gensler on his first day as president and hire crypto-friendly regulators. “The moment I’m sworn in, the persecution stops, and the weaponization ends,” he said.

Trump later directed that pro-cryptocurrency language be added to the Republican Party’s platform.

Pronounced ‘me-me’

In September, Trump launched the cryptocurrency venture World Liberty Financial, which promised to “make crypto and America great.” His sons, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, serve as the fund’s “Web3 Ambassadors,” and Barron is “Chief DeFi Visionary.” An entity affiliated with Trump and his family members owns 60% of the equity interests.

“Crypto is one of those things we have to do,” Trump said at the time. “Whether we like it or not, we have to do it.”

President Trump’s son Barron, center, at the presidential inauguration. Photo: Kenny Holston/Press Pool

The project swiftly drew criticism, including from crypto venture capitalist Nic Carter, who accused Trump’s inner circle of “cashing in” on crypto in a news article. Soon after, top Trump adviser Steve Witkoff, who co-founded the project, invited Carter to a Miami coffee shop and told him the startup would be operated with integrity.

Trump has since appointed Witkoff as his top negotiator in the Middle East and for the war in Ukraine.

Carter supports Trump but remains concerned. “Presidents shouldn’t be running businesses, especially not stuff where they can directly influence the outcome, which is clearly the case in crypto,” he said. As for Witkoff, Carter said, the role of peace negotiator was likely a better fit than crypto kingpin. Witkoff, Carter noted, had pronounced meme coins as “me-me coins.”

World Liberty Financial also drew criticism over its potential for foreign entities and those with business before the U.S. government to channel money to Trump and his family without public disclosure.

In November, Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun invested $30 million in World Liberty Financial, which was struggling to meet fundraising targets. Afterward, Sun, who was battling an SEC lawsuit accusing him and several of his companies of fraud, became a World Liberty adviser.

Last month, the SEC asked a court to pause its fraud lawsuit, which Sun has called meritless. A representative for Sun didn’t respond to a request for comment. The White House didn’t respond to a question about whether Trump had played a role in the SEC decision.

Chinese entrepreneur Justin Sun at a hotel in Hong Kong. Photo: Keith Tsuji for WSJ

Barron Trump, a freshman at New York University, joined strategy calls and contributed industry connections for the family’s crypto project, said people familiar with the matter. The first lady’s office declined to comment on Barron’s behalf.

“The president should be proud of having a son who is that focused and that thorough in his thinking,” said Witkoff, who has stepped away from World Liberty Financial since he started working for the White House.

Bo Loudon, an 18-year-old friend of Barron Trump, has touted his connections in calls with cryptocurrency executives seeking access to the Trump family, said two people who joined the calls.

Loudon in one call said it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to keep him on retainer, serving as a conduit to the Trump family, according to a person on the call. Loudon didn’t respond to requests for comment.

‘YOU’RE WELCOME!!!’

Crypto executives celebrated Trump’s November victory and soon started lining up for dinners with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, in a post on X congratulated the president-elect and ticked off four points for Trump’s “100-day checklist,” including firing Gensler from the SEC. Ripple gave $15 million to Trump entities, including $5 million in the cryptocurrency XRP to the inaugural committee, ahead of a Garlinghouse dinner with Trump in January, said a person familiar with the matter.

Lobbyists told clients a donation of $1 million to a Trump super PAC would afford donors an invitation to a large group dinner at Mar-a-Lago, where the president might make an appearance. Donors who gave $5 million or more were promised a meeting with the president-elect.

Some executives urged Trump to launch a national bitcoin reserve, either by holding digital assets seized by the government or purchasing them with taxpayer dollars—bidding up prices in the process—said people who attended the dinners. At one dinner, Trump told a group he had heard from some in the industry that regulations were needed and others said they weren’t.

Trump polled his guests on possible picks to replace Gensler at the SEC, including Paul Atkins, said people familiar with the conversations.

Paul Atkins, tapped by Trump to be chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News

Trump tapped Atkins in early December, around the time bitcoin’s price crossed $100,000. Trump marked the milestone with a post on Truth Social: “YOU’RE WELCOME!!!”

Crypto executives began aggressively lobbying for a seat on a promised White House crypto council, some hiring lobbyists with monthly retainers as high as $80,000. Interest grew so intense that Trump advisers decided to exclude crypto executives from the council to avoid souring relationships with those who weren’t picked.

A White House official said the administration had opted, for logistical reasons, to host the crypto summit instead of forming a crypto council.

During the transition, Bill Zanker, a longtime friend of Trump’s, pitched the president-elect on another crypto business venture: a Trump token, according to a person familiar with the matter. Trump’s team hammered out the deal ahead of his inauguration.

Under the agreement, an affiliate of the Trump Organization owns 80% of the supply of the $TRUMP token together with Fight Fight Fight, an LLC registered in Delaware by Zanker. Zanker declined to comment.