A political motion committee supporting former President Donald Trump has raised roughly $7.5 million in crypto donations since early June, in line with a recent filing with the Federal Election Commission. The Trump 47 joint fundraising committee received contributions in Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, in addition to stablecoins Tether and USD Coin.
The newest filing, submitted on Tuesday, covers donations from July 1 through September 30 and includes cumulative contributions. This huge amount of crypto donations confirms the previous data, which confirmed that the industry is betting heavily on Trump, with the US election only three weeks away.
Bitcoin And Crypto Donations Bolster Trump Campaign
Trump, who previously expressed skepticism toward Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies during his presidency, has repositioned himself as a pro-crypto candidate. In May, he became the primary major presidential contender to just accept campaign donations in digital assets. “The campaign has raised $25 million from the crypto industry,” Trump announced during a keynote speech at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville in July.
Nearly half of all corporate money flowing into the upcoming election has come from the crypto sector, in line with a report by the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen. Major contributors include Coinbase, Ripple, and enterprise capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, collectively accounting for a significant slice of business donations. The industry has raised roughly 13 times the quantity it brought in throughout the last presidential election cycle.
A minimum of 18 donors contributed greater than $5.5 million in Bitcoin to the Trump 47 committee, while one other seven individuals donated around $1.5 million in Ether, as per the filing. Contributors hail from over 15 states, including key battlegrounds, in addition to the US territory of Puerto Rico. Their professions range from software engineers at defense contractor Lockheed Martin to sales engineers at Duthie Power Services and producers at Esperanza Entertainment.
David Bailey, CEO of media group BTC Inc., contributed over $498,000 in Bitcoin. Bailey was instrumental in “orange-pilling” Trump, culminating in the previous president’s participation within the Nashville conference. Mike Belshe, CEO of digital asset security firm BitGo, donated nearly $100,000 in Bitcoin. Brian Murray, a partner at Craft Ventures—founded by pro-Trump enterprise capitalist David Sacks—gave $6,560 in Bitcoin.
Trevor Traina, founding father of Kresus Labs, donated over $25,000 in Ether. Bruce Fenton, CEO of Chainstone Labs, contributed $60,000 in Bitcoin. Gary Cardone of Cardone Digital Ventures donated over $840,000 in Bitcoin. Stuart Alderoty, Chief Legal Officer at Ripple, contributed $300,000 in XRP and attended a Trump fundraising event hosted by David Sacks in San Francisco in June.
Alderoty’s contribution contrasts with that of Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen, who donated $1 million value of XRP tokens to Future Forward, a brilliant PAC related to Democratic campaigns. While the Biden administration has taken a stringent stance toward the crypto industry, Larsen expressed confidence in Vice President Kamala Harris’s understanding of the innovation economy as a result of her Bay Area roots.
“She knows individuals who have grown up within the innovation economy her whole life,” Larsen told CNBC. “I believe she gets it at a fundamental level, in a way that I believe the Biden folks were just not being attentive to, or perhaps just didn’t make the connection between empowering staff and ensuring you have got American champions dominating their industries.”
Along with Larsen, Marvin Ammori, General Counsel at Uniswap Labs—which is currently facing legal challenges over alleged securities law violations—also contributed to political motion committees aligned with Democratic interests. On the pro-Trump side, billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have significantly supported the campaign, each contributing nearly $1.1 million. A few of these funds were refunded in September as a result of exceeding legal contribution limits.
Among the many recent donors is Chase Herro, co-founder of World Liberty Financial, Trump’s recent crypto project. The platform goals to operate as a decentralized bank, encouraging users to borrow, lend, and put money into cryptocurrencies. Despite launching its token sale with an initial fundraising goal of $300 million, the project has to date sold over $10.2 million value of WLFI tokens. The launch faced technical issues, including website crashes throughout the sale.
At press time, BTC traded at $67,989.
Featured image from France 24, chart from TradingView.com