Views from inside the Crypto Ball 

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.

---

If you aren’t in DC and/or have not spent your inauguration weekend scrolling through Crypto Twitter, here’s a quick recap: 

1. Crypto industry elites (and a journalist or two) donned black tie at the Crypto Ball Friday night. 
2. Halfway through the ball, Donald Trump launched a memecoin, $TRUMP, which hit a market cap of $1 billion before Snoop Dogg left the stage. 

Guests included incoming crypto czar David Sacks, Donald Trump Jr., Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent and, oddly enough, former Congress member and convicted felon George Santos. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Bryan Steil, the new chair of the digital assets subcommittee, also made appearances. 

“The reign of terror against crypto is over,” Sacks said during the only speech of the night. 

Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross and Soulja Boy performed. Almost all of the crypto bros adhered to the black tie dress code, and only one tux-wearer opted for a splash of bitcoin orange: Michael Saylor. 

Other big industry names in attendance included Jesse Powell, the Winklevoss twins and Brian Armstrong.

Tickets to the main event started at $2,500 and eventually hit $10,000 before selling out. VIP tickets went for $100,000. $1 million got you four VIP tickets plus dinner for one with Donald Trump, who did not attend the ball, “at a later date.” 

Let’s dispel a couple of myths about the event: It was not “invite only” and it was not hosted by Donald Trump. MAGA Inc. and Bitcoin Inc. ran the event, along with several sponsoring companies and co-hosts, including Kraken, Exodus and Anchorage Digital. 

As for the memecoin, to say “no one at the ball knew about it” would be false. To say “few people at the ball cared about it,” on the other hand, would be more accurate. 

As someone in the room, the politicians, industry execs and the ultra wealthy were far more interested in hearing Snoop perform covers of Fleetwood Mac (odd choice, I know). 

Ball attendees may have missed out (or been late to the party, at least) on what turned out to be a lucrative trade, but the vast majority of the people in that room already have something far more coveted: political influence. 

Plus, it’s crypto. You don’t need to be sitting at a desktop computer to make a few buys. The token is now available on Kraken and Coinbase.

To be clear though, plenty of people at the ball weren’t happy about $TRUMP. But it wasn’t because they felt “left out” — it’s because they think the memecoin gives crypto a bad name, and could throw a wrench in some of their legislative plans.

“This is a horrible look for the industry already trying to make the case that we’re not a bunch of hucksters, scammers and fraudsters,” one lobbyist told Politico. 

As of Inauguration Day morning, $TRUMP’s market cap was hovering just below $11 billion. 

I made it out of DC just in time to skip the chaos of the weekend, but I’ll be watching from afar to see which “day one” promises come to fruition. You won’t want to miss tomorrow’s newsletter.

---

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

• The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
• 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
• Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
• Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
• The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
• Lightspeed: All things Solana.
• Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.