Crypto industry insiders looking to score a dinner date with Donald Trump are in luck — all they have to do is cough up $1 million.
David Sacks, perhaps San Francisco’s most prominent Trump supporter and the new president’s official AI and crypto czar, is hosting an exclusive VIP reception Friday night alongside the inaugural “Crypto Ball” in Washington, D.C.
Tickets for the VIP reception are going for $100,000. A $1 million package includes four tickets and a single admission to a future dinner with Trump, who will be sworn in as president Monday. That dinner is expected to take place in February or March, according to messages reviewed by The Standard.
The VIP reception and the ball are taking place at the same time at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, so attendees can “float between both events,” the messages said. The reception is hosted in partnership with MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC.
The crypto industry, long dogged by its association with con artists and consumer fraud, is throwing the hottest inauguration party in Washington. The black-tie ball, complete with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, is being hosted by blockchain and media company BTC Inc. and advocacy group Stand With Crypto. In contrast to the reception, tickets to the sold-out ball were a relative steal at $2,500, though they’re going for multiple times that rate on the resale market.
The ball will celebrate “the first crypto president” and marks the sector’s long-running battle to gain acceptance from the establishment. After the super PAC Fairshake and two related organizations poured $135 million into dozens of congressional races last year, crypto became a major campaign issue across the country.
Donald Trump’s inauguration will include a “Crypto Ball,” with technology industry leaders celebrating him as "the first crypto president”. pic.twitter.com/88KdGQ1Iyf
— Documenting ₿itcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) January 13, 2025
“For the past four years, crypto has been a very dirty, dirty word in Washington,” said Frank Chaparro, a podcast host and investor who is attending the ball.
“What we’re experiencing on Jan. 20 is a monumental change in tone and approach from the government,” said Chaparro, who expects to see friends from all over the country at the soiree. “This is a huge deal.”
Trump, a onetime crypto skeptic who claimed bitcoin “seems like a scam,” is now an evangelist. He has pledged to establish a “strategic national bitcoin stockpile” and has nominated lawyer Paul Atkins, a critic of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s crypto policies under President Biden, to run the agency.
The industry is also celebrating what Brian Armstrong, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has called “America’s most pro-crypto Congress ever,” courtesy of millions spent by super PACs and billionaires. Coinbase, blockchain company Ripple, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz were the biggest donors to the pro-crypto super PACs.
Sacks, Trump’s right-hand crypto man, is founder and partner at venture capital firm Craft Ventures and a member of the so-called PayPal Mafia, an influential alumni network from the payment technology company that includes billionaires Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and Elon Musk.
These days, though, he’s better known for his involvement in the “All-In” tech and politics podcast. Over the summer, Sacks hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his Pacific Heights mansion that brought in a whopping $13 million from ultra-wealthy Silicon Valley conservatives.
While the galas might be crypto’s official entrée into the establishment, there was a common complaint among attendees: Despite the several-thousand-dollar price tag, no dinner is provided. One attendee said she planned to grab a burger beforehand.