US President Donald Trump hosted a dinner for companies pledging funds to build a new ballroom at the White House, with attendees reportedly including Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, as well as executives from Coinbase and Ripple.
According to a Wall Street Journal article published Wednesday, among the donors and attendees of the White House dinner were the Winklevosses and representatives from Coinbase Global and Ripple Labs. The dinner was reportedly intended to fund Trump’s proposed White House ballroom in July, which was estimated to cost $250 million.
The ballroom is expected to add about 90,000 square feet, or 8,361 square meters, to the White House. Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase, Ripple, Gemini and the White House for comment on the amount of donations but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The fundraising dinner took place at the end of the 15th day of the U.S. government shutdown, when many federal agencies are operating with limited staff and their employees furloughed. As of Thursday, there was no reported agreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress to pass a bill to continue funding the government.
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Other attendees at the fundraising event included representatives from Meta, Google, Amazon, Lockheed Martin and Microsoft. Former Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler, who currently works as a Small Business Administration administrator under Trump, was also reportedly in attendance.
Crypto Companies Strengthen Ties With Administration, Get Politically Involved
Ahead of Wednesday’s fundraising dinner, representatives from crypto companies, including CEOs and executives, visited lawmakers and regulators in Washington, DC, as part of a push for greater adoption of digital assets and blockchain.
During Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, the Winklevosses pledged $2 million in Bitcoin (BTC) to the candidate at the time. The brothers continued to have a presence in Washington and the White House by attending a GENIUS stablecoin bill signing ceremony in July and donate $21 million to a pro-Trump political action committee ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty have also developed close ties to the Trump administration since his election victory. The two men met with the then president-elect in November and attended the inauguration events in January, with Ripple ads visible in metro stations across the city.
Garlinghouse too met Trump and other industry leaders at a White House crypto summit in March.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has also been a consistent presence on Capitol Hill, meeting with American legislators to support the GENIUS Act and crypto market structure legislation. The crypto exchange also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, along with Armstrong. meeting with the president one-on-one in November.
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