Ripple’s Massive $4M Gift to Trump Inauguration Draws Scrutiny

The start to President Trump’s second term in the US has been quite rocky to the crypto sector. Although Bitcoin soared to its highs of $109K in the initial days, the crypto sector also witnessed lows close to $70K levels due to the fears driven by Trump Tariffs and global market volatility. 

Even though there has been momentum in crypto regulation and stronger ties with the sector, the economic uncertainty due to the global trade war has led to instability in the markets. 

Nevertheless, Trump had solid support from crypto heavyweights as recent documents from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveals that several major digital asset firms donated millions to Trump’s inauguration fund. As per records, Crypto firms and executives poured in about $18 million into the fund.

Ripple Donates About $5 Million

According to the filings, Solana Labs donated $1 million USD to back the current administration. There were other contributions from Uniswap’s CEO Hayden Adams ($245,000) and Consensys ($100,000) too. But who led the pack? It was Ripple Labs who has been the biggest donor so far which contributed about $5 million ($7.8 million AUD). Pilgrim’s Pride Corp, a U.S.-based poultry producer, was the only company which donated more. 

Between Trump’s victory and the release of the report on April 20, his political party attracted around $239 million USD (AU $372 million) in donations. Several major crypto firms including Coinbase, Ripple Labs, Kraken, Ondo Finance, and Robinhood made seven figure donations. Meta, PayPal, FedEx, Open AI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia and Apple, were also among the top contributors.  

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As the Trump administration has taken a pro-crypto stance, the SEC has dropped major lawsuits, giving relief to big players like Coinbase, OpenSea, and Ripple. 

Trump had announced that his executive order on digital assets will create a new U.S. strategic cryptocurrency reserve which is expected to include Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, and Cardano.

XRP Fails To Rally

XRP saw impressive gains after CEO Brad Garlinghouse and CLO Stuart Alderoty met Trump. However, XRP has failed to rally despite the latest developments. It is currently trading at $2.10, down 0.9% in the past day and over 3% in the past week.