Blockchain
Trump Bitcoin Conference Fundraiser Tickets Hit High $844,600 for Nashville Night
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, June 22, 2024.
by Shannon Stapleton
Former President Donald Trump will headline a campaign fundraiser in Nashville, Tennessee, on the sidelines of the Bitcoin Conference, where the most expensive ticket will go on sale for $844,600 per person.
According to an invitation shared with CNBC, the July 27 event will coincide with Trump’s anticipated keynote address at the conference, the largest gathering of cryptocurrency enthusiasts in the country.
The top-tier tickets, which include a seat at a round table with Trump, are priced equal to the maximum amount individuals can donate to Trump and the Republican Party’s largest joint fundraising committee, known as the Trump Committee 47.
On the lower level, a photo with the former president is available for $60,000 per person or $100,000 per couple, according to the invitation.
Trump agreed to headline the Music City Center bout shortly before surviving an assassination attempt on July 13.
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about his appearances in Nashville.
In recent months, Trump has positioned himself as the pro-crypto candidate for president, reversing the position he took during his tenure in the White House.
In April, Trump launched his latest collection of non-fungible tokens on the Solana blockchain and began increasingly bullish comments on cryptocurrencies since then.
Trump’s campaign team is accept donations in digital currencyand has personally committed to defending the rights of those who choose to self-custody their coins, meaning they are not dependent on a centralized entity like Monetary base to store their tokens and instead do so independently in personal crypto wallets, which are sometimes beyond the reach of the IRS.
Trump also promised at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington in May to retain Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts., and “his henchmen” away from bitcoin holders.
Meanwhile, after a meeting at the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida with about a dozen bitcoin mining executives who promised him money and votes, Trump declared that all future bitcoins will be minted in the United States, should he return to the White House.
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On Monday, the Republican presidential candidate named Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate, a move seen by many as a clear victory for the cryptocurrency industry. Vance has advocated for looser regulation of cryptocurrencies and disclosed in 2022 that he personally holds Bitcoin.
This is in stark contrast to the Biden White House, which has taken a consistently skeptical approach to cryptocurrency regulation. Under President Joe BidenThe Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its action in the sector.
In the absence of strict rules from Congress, the United States has proven to be one of the most active countries in applying sanctions and legal action against cryptocurrency companies.
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In this election cycle, the cryptocurrency sector has become a key conduit for money and votes.
One day later Trump has named Vance to his ticket, venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz have told Andreessen Horowitz employees that they plan to make significant donations to political action committees they support by Trump countryside.
“They’ve sued over 30 of our companies, I think,” Horowitz said. he said in an episode of “The Ben & Marc Show”, featuring the co-founders of a16z.
“They’re losing almost all of these lawsuits, but the problem is when you’re a startup, you don’t have the money to fight the U.S. government. And so they’re kind of bombing the industry that way,” he said.
Fairshake, a super PAC backed by major cryptocurrency firms, is now one of the top-spending PACs this election cycle. Of the $160 million in total contributions it has raised, 94% can be traced back to just four companies: Ripple, Andreesen Horowitz, Monetary base and Jump Crypto.
In early June in San Francisco, technologists, cryptocurrency industry executives and venture capitalists paid up to $300,000 per ticket to attend a Trump fundraiser that eventually has raised more than $12 million.