WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President took office in January pledging to 鈥渕ake America the crypto capital of the world." He has since harnessed wide swaths of the federal government to bolster the industry 鈥� all while raking in .
By , crypto ventures now account for nearly 40% of the Trump Organization's $2.9 billion net worth. But the Republican president's championing of the industry has been just as big a boon for many of the industry's top names.
Many have seen their profits and political standing soar, while investigations of potential wrongdoing and other legal entanglements led by the administration of Trump's predecessor, Democratic President , have largely fallen away.
Here's a look at some of the crypto industry's top leaders and their ties to Trump:
Justin Sun
A Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur and founder of the platform Tron, Sun is best known for buying a piece of conceptual art consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall for and subsequently .
Ties to Trump: Sun was the top investor in Trump鈥檚 , $Trump, and secured the top spot at the president's recent , which was held at Trump鈥檚 golf course just outside Washington. Sun posted a professionally produced video of himself receiving a $100,000 gold watch that Trump鈥檚 meme coin awarded to the top four investors. Sun also recently bragged about his close ties to the White House, posting in Chinese on X 鈥淚t鈥檚 all true鈥� over a series of posts listing his links to the president and his meme coin. Sun was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Biden for working to artificially inflate the price of crypto, an investigation that has been paused since Trump took office. Sun was an early and important investor in World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture Trump and his sons Eric and launched in September. The president鈥檚 most recent reveals he made more than $57 million last year from World Liberty Financial, which USD1, a pegged at a 1-to-1 ratio to the U.S. dollar.
Michael Saylor
The co-founder and chair of Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, Saylor is one of most prominent and outspoken evangelists. He owns a yacht once featured on 鈥淓ntourage,鈥� and his is the most high-profile , which is a type of firm primarily focused on buying and holding bitcoin as its business model. Strategy currently holds more than 2% of all outstanding bitcoins in circulation and is constantly buying more.
Ties to Trump: Trump Media, the parent company of the president鈥檚 social media platform, Truth Social, has announced it will raise $2.5 billion from institutional investors to in an attempt to build up a cryptocurrency reserve, similar to what Saylor鈥檚 company is best known for. Saylor met in January with Eric Trump at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and the president's son has spoken publicly about how he and Saylor were friends who knew each other in New York two decades ago. Saylor also attended the president's in March. 鈥淎ll of us owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude,鈥� Eric Trump said of Saylor, praising him at the recent annual bitcoin conference in Las Vegas as an effective spokesperson for the crypto community.
Changpeng Zhao
Known universally as CZ, Zhao is founder and former CEO of Binance, the world鈥檚 largest cryptocurrency exchange. He was sentenced last year to for failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. Zhao was released in September.
Ties to Trump: World Liberty Financial that an investment fund in the United Arab Emirates would be using $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance. Zhao also has publicly said that he's asked Trump for a pardon that could nullify his conviction.
Brian Armstrong
Co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange, Armstrong has been a key figure in .
Ties to Trump: Armstrong and Coinbase were major donors to a political action committee that helped Trump and other pro-crypto candidates. He met with Trump weeks after Election Day and attended the White House crypto summit. Coinbase hired Trump鈥檚 former campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, to . Trump also addressed, via prerecorded video message, Coinbase's State of Crypto Summit this month.
The Winklevoss Twins
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange and are most famous to the general public for over the creation of Facebook, an important plot point in the movie 鈥淭he Social Network.鈥� In 2023, Biden's SEC sued Gemini for , another case that's been paused since Trump took office.
Ties to Trump: The twins each pledged $1 million donations to the Trump campaign, as well as lavish donations to Elon Musk鈥檚 political group 鈥� though some of the donations to Trump鈥檚 campaign were returned because the Winklevoss brothers had violated federal limits. They were invited to Trump鈥檚 crypto summit and praised the president鈥檚 approach to the sector then. Addressing the crypto conference in Las Vegas, Vice President JD Vance said the brothers 鈥渞eally helped break the dam鈥� and persuade tech sector leaders to support Trump鈥檚 campaign. 鈥淚 think they were some of the first big names in Silicon Valley to take that step, and a whole host of people followed them,鈥� Vance said.
David Bailey
Bailey is the CEO of BTC Inc., an influential holding company with ventures throughout the crypto industry including Bitcoin Magazine. He recently raised $300 million to launch Nakamoto, a publicly traded bitcoin investment company.
Ties to Trump: Baily served as a crypto adviser to Trump's campaign. Vance also saluted Bailey at the Las Vegas conference, saying he was 鈥済rateful for everything you've done for the bitcoin community.鈥�
___
Associated Press writer Alan Suderman contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP's coverage of the crypto industry at .
Will Weissert, The Associated Press
