The Crypto Ball: Donald Trump Jr., Ted Cruz, and Rick Ross Partied the Night Away with the Crypto Elite

For much of the Biden administration, the industry complained of unclear rules and SEC crackdowns under outgoing chair Gary Gensler. But Trump — who once clowned on crypto as “based on thin air” — has embraced the sector as an opportunity for growth.

David Sacks was beaming on Friday night onstage between the doric columns of the Andrew W. Mellon auditorium. There was a lot to celebrate in this august hall just across the street from the National Mall. Donald Trump is just days away from making America great again and Sacks — a PayPal mafia member, venture capitalist, and champion podcaster for cryptocurrency — is joining the administration as his artificial intelligence and crypto czar. As a victory lap, Sacks was hosting the Crypto Ball along with a number of industry sponsors. “The reign of terror against crypto is over,” he said in his speech to the black-tie crowd.

That feeling of freedom was shared among many of the VIP members in the building. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong was there; two years ago, his crypto exchange was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities broker. Marathon CEO Fred Thiel was there chatting with House Speaker Mike Johnson; last year, his crypto firm was sued by the SEC for allegedly failing to create policies to prevent the misuse of confidential information. The Winkelvoss twins were also in the house; last year, they settled with the SEC for allegedly offering unregistered securities through their firm Gemini. Later in the night, the rapper Soulja Boy was onstage performing his ringtone hit “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” Even he had a run-in two years ago with the SEC when he was charged with illegally touting a lesser token. Are you getting the picture?

For much of the Biden administration, the industry complained of unclear rules and SEC crackdowns under outgoing chair Gary Gensler. But Trump — who once clowned on crypto as “based on thin air” — has embraced the sector as an opportunity for growth, while promising clear and crypto-friendly regulation. Industry leaders that were treated by Democratic lawmakers as pariahs post-FTX are now in the halls of power. Crypto’s prodigal sons spent more than $130 million to help elect Trump and put Republicans in Congress. And now that their party technically has trifecta control, expectations are high. (As is the price of Bitcoin, still sitting above $100,000.)

“There’s a huge level of confidence,” explains Mike Belshe. “This was a topic a lot of people talked about last night.” Belshe is the CEO of BitGo, a company that boasts of processing eight percent of all Bitcoin transactions by value. He sees the second Trump term as a now-or-never moment for the economy. “If we can’t help change America now, maybe there’s no way to change it,” he said. “Maybe it’s just done.”

“Last night the crypto community wanted to come out and show the political community that this is a really important thing,” says Belshe, who held a fundraiser for the Trump campaign last summer. “It’s not just a bunch of renegades, it is serious people from traditional Wall Street, all walks of the United States.”

That includes an extremely successful investor known as Snoop Dogg. The rapper — who once shot a toy gun at a Trump caricature in one of his videos — says he is OK with the president-elect now and had no problem performing Friday night for an undisclosed sum. After all, he’s long been a fan of crypto. “They let a real crip up in the Crypto Ball,” he said, in a video standing next to Rick Ross, who also performed Friday night.

Rick Ross & Snoop Dogg performing at Donald Trump’s crypto ball event in DC

The ball began around 8 p.m. Attendees paid $2,500 to get into the building, a price tag that included an open bar but no dinner. Videos from the party suggest that gender parity was not achieved. But there was a wide range of ages of men at least. Rushi Manche, a 22-year-old dropout and crypto founder in attendance says there is a “crypto brain drain” right now and that he looks forward to the U.S. becoming more of a hub for the industry when Trump establishes clear rules. “A lot of my peers are saying. ‘Hey, I want to build my company in Singapore. I want to build my company in the Cayman Islands because I don’t feel comfortable in the U.S.,” he said.

For $100,000, Crypto Ball attendees could pay for a VIP ticket and gain access to a roped-off area overlooking the main crowd, where D.C. and BTC figures mingled with the likes of Ted Cruz, Donald Trump Jr., Michael Saylor, Scott Bessent, Peter Thiel, and Howard Lutnick. Or they could just sneak right in. Nick O’Neill — who runs an NFT company and went viral last year for parodying the crypto-bro lifestyle — says that he saw people ducking security to get with the stars. “Someone told me that they met multiple disgraced congressman,” said