BitGo CEO Belshe to Host Fundraiser for Trump Headlined by Vance

BitGo Chief Executive Officer Mike Belshe will host a fundraiser for Donald Trump’s campaign headlined by the Republican nominee’s running mate JD Vance — the latest sign of the ticket’s appeal to prominent cryptocurrency executives.

The dinner reception is slated for Monday, , in Palo Alto, California, according to an invitation obtained by Bloomberg News. Belshe is asking attendees to pay $3,300 to attend the reception, $15,000 per photo with Vance and $25,000 to participate in a roundtable. For $50,000 couples can join the host committee for the event. 

While Silicon Valley still leans overwhelmingly Democratic, a growing contingent of tech company founders and venture capital investors including Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and David Sacks have broken ranks, pledging to donate significant sums to return Trump to the White House. 

Trump supporters are betting that the former president’s agenda, centered on renewing expiring tax cuts and slashing government regulation, will be friendlier to startups working in the artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency spheres. 

Belshe donated Bitcoin worth $50,000 to Trump in June.

Belshe and the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The fundraiser also highlights Vance’s ties with the technology industry dating back to his stints working at venture capital firms associated with tech figures Peter Thiel and Steve Case. Vance, a senator from Ohio, has cultivated his connections to the industry in his own political career. He ran for the Senate with $15 million in support from Thiel, who has been a prominent tech industry supporter of Trump. 

Those ties have also helped Vance bolster Trump’s war chest this cycle, including by helping arrange a major San Francisco fundraiser in June led by Silicon Valley investors Chamath Palihapitiya and Sacks.

Trump, once skeptical of crypto, has increasingly embraced the industry and sought to court its executives who are flooding the political cycle with cash to ensure the election of candidates supportive of their interests. The Republican nominee is slated to speak at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday and is hosting a private fundraiser with donors the same day.

Earlier: Trump Asks $844,600 for Fundraiser Seat at Bitcoin Conference

His campaign is also accepting digital assets as donations. Between May, when Trump started accepting cryptocurrencies, and June 30, he raised $3.4 million in Bitcoin, Ether, USDC and other currencies, filings with the Federal Election Commission show. 

Trump previously secured $844,600 donations, the maximum amount, from crypto billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Winklevoss Capital Management and Jesse Powell, co-founder of Kraken.

With assistance from Bill Allison.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.