-
Tyler
and
Cameron
Winklevoss,
the
executives
atop
Gemini,
gave
$1
million
each
to
the
campaign
of
former
President
Donald
Trump,
the
two
announced
on
X. -
The
two
had
already
been
major
donors
for
2024
U.S.
campaigns,
each
previously
giving
about
$2.7
million,
mostly
to
the
industry’s
super
PAC,
Fairshake.
Gemini
CEO
Tyler
and
his
twin
brother
Cameron
Winklevoss,
the
company’s
president,
have
made
two
of
the
first
major
presidential
contributions
from
prominent
crypto
executives,
favoring
former
President
Donald
Trump
with
$1
million
each
in
support,
Tyler
explained
Thursday
in
a
extensive
posting
on
X.
“Over
the
past
few
years,
the
Biden
Administration
has
openly
declared
war
against
crypto,”
Winklevoss
began
in
the
lengthy
case
against
President
Joe
Biden’s
administration.
“It
has
weaponized
multiple
government
agencies
to
bully,
harass,
and
sue
the
good
actors
in
our
industry
in
an
effort
to
destroy
it.”
Gemini
was
targeted
last
year
in
a
U.S.
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
case
that
accused
the
exchange
of
offering
unregistered
securities,
which
Tyler
Winklevoss
called
at
the
time
a
“manufactured
parking
ticket.”
His
explanation
for
supporting
Trump
was
much
more
about
opposing
Biden.
“President
Donald
J.
Trump
is
the
pro-Bitcoin,
pro-crypto,
and
pro-business
choice,”
he
concluded.
Tyler
Winklevoss
said
he
used
Trump’s
recently
established
willingness
to
take
crypto
contributions
and
gave
his
contribution
in
the
form
of
15.47
bitcoin,
and
his
brother
posted
later
that
he’d
done
the
same.
The
money
goes
to
the
Trump
47
Committee
Inc.,
according
to
a
spokeswoman.
That’s
a
“joint
fundraising
committee”
which
may
divide
the
amount
to
comply
with
legal
limits
for
campaign
contributions,
meaning
the
money
could
be
spread
across
a
longer
list
of
Republican
benefactors.
The
brothers
have
–
all
along
–
donated
matching
amounts
to
U.S.
election
efforts.
It
was
already
a
large
sum
that
placed
them
among
the
major
individual
contributors
in
the
2024
campaigns.
Before
today,
the
two
had
given
a
total
of
about
$2.7
million
each,
according
to
Federal
Election
Commission
disclosures.
On
the
presidential
level,
they’d
already
backed
most
of
the
prominent
contenders
that
had
tried
earlier
to
yank
the
Republican
nomination
out
from
under
Trump:
Vivek
Ramaswamy,
Nikki
Haley,
Sen.
Tim
Scott
and
Florida
Gov.
Ron
Desantis.
The
bulk
of
their
donations,
however,
have
been
to
the
industry’s
main
political
action
committee
(PAC),
Fairshake.
Their
combined
$5
million
represents
a
small
but
significant
share
of
the
Fairshake
super
PAC
contributions
that
have
now
almost
reached
$169
million.
That
money
has
been
devoted
to
buying
outside
ads
for
congressional
candidates
in
the
hope
of
loading
Congress
with
crypto
supporters.
The
Winklevoss
donations
to
Trump
47
join
similar
maxed-out
contributions
from
Jeffrey
Sprecher,
the
founder,
chairman,
and
CEO
of
Intercontinental
Exchange,
and
his
wife
Kelly
Lynn
Loeffler,
a
former
U.S.
senator
and
CEO
of
Bakkt;
Joe
Ricketts,
the
founder
and
former
CEO
of
TD
Ameritrade;
and
Robert
Bigelow,
who
owns
Budget
Suites
of
America
and
founded
the
now-defunct
Bigelow
Aerospace.
Nikhilesh
De
contributed
reporting.
