Latest news with #TronInc
Business Upturn
11-08-2025
- Business
- Business Upturn
Tron Inc. Reports Record Second Quarter Financial Results
-Over $111,000,000 in Shareholders' Equity – Largest TRX Holdings of Any Public Company Winter Park, Florida, Aug. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Tron Inc. (Nasdaq: TRON) (the 'Company'), an innovation leader at the intersection of blockchain, entertainment and digital assets announced financial results for the fiscal quarter ending on June 30, 2025, in its Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the 'SEC') on Friday. The Company reported net income of $1,467,855 for the three months ended June 30, 2025, compared to a loss of $520,971 in the prior-year period and paid off the remaining $500,000 on its promissory note leaving no debt other than operating accounts payable. In addition, Tron Inc. ended the second quarter of 2025 with over $111 million in shareholders' equity, supported by a strong asset base including cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and investments in TRON tokens (TRX) — marking an extraordinary over 3,500% year-over-year increase from under $3.1 million in the same period of 2024. Management attributes this rapid growth to the Company's disciplined cost structure, low cash burn rate, and its strategic investments in high-growth digital assets. This strong financial position is expected to fuel upcoming expansion initiatives, including enhancing the Company's digital asset portfolio and advancing its blockchain-entertainment ecosystem. 'We believe Tron Inc. is exceptionally well-positioned to seize opportunities in the fast-evolving digital economy,' said Rich Miller, CEO of Tron Inc. 'Our robust balance sheet and operational discipline give us the flexibility to pursue strategic growth while maximizing shareholder value.' About Tron Inc. Tron Inc. (formerly SRM Entertainment, Inc.) is a publicly traded company pioneering blockchain-integrated treasury strategies. As the public company with the largest TRON (TRX) tokens holdings, Tron Inc. is committed to transparency, and the adoption of decentralized finance for long-term value creation. In addition, through its wholly owned subsidiary, the Company designs, develops, and manufactures custom merchandise which includes toys and souvenirs for the world's largest theme parks and other entertainment venues. Many of the Company's products are based on award winning multi-billion-dollar entertainment franchises that are featured in popular movies and books. The products are distributed worldwide at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Universal Parks and Destinations, United Parks and Resorts – SeaWorld, Six Flags and other attractions. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as 'may,' 'will,' 'expect,' 'anticipate,' 'aim,' 'estimate,' 'intend,' 'plan,' 'believe,' 'is/are likely to,' 'potential,' 'continue' or other similar expressions. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's continued expansion into blockchain-powered treasury holdings and long-term vision to build shareholder value through innovation and strategic leadership. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the risk factors discussed in the Risk Factors and in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations sections of our Forms 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed with the SEC and available at Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review other factors that may affect its future results in the Company's registration statement and other filings with the SEC. Additional factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the SEC, which are available for review at The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations that arise after the date hereof, except as may be required by law. Media and Investor Relations [email protected](407)-230-8100 website:
Coin Geek
25-07-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
TRON's Nasdaq debut a dud; Ethena stablecoin coming to America
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... TRON's Nasdaq debut was a double-digit dive, while some 'offshore' stablecoins are looking to make their own splashy U.S. debuts. On July 24, Justin Sun, founder of the TRON blockchain, rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq stock exchange. The occasion marked TRON's Nasdaq debut, following last month's reverse merger with SRM Entertainment, a struggling theme park merchandise supplier that announced it would rebrand as Tron Inc. Clad in a tuxedo, Sun—who serves as Tron Inc's 'global advisor'—delivered some remarks ahead of the bell, declaring the occasion to have been 'his dream' for 15 years. He claimed TRON's ambition to match some of the Nasdaq media/tech giants was only just beginning, but the dream proved more of a nightmare, at least, for TRON investors. SRM's shares had languished below $1 all year, threatening its ability to remain on the Nasdaq. News of the TRON deal caused SRM shares to spike above $11, but the shares lost nearly one-fifth of their value in the week before the rebrand. And despite Thursday's hype, the shares took a dive shortly after the opening bell and never really recovered, closing trading down 10.7% to $8.74. Sun/TRON are increasingly tied to President Trump and his crypto ventures. Between the WLFI token of the Trump-linked decentralized finance (DeFi) project World Liberty Financial (WLF) and the president's $TRUMP memecoin, Sun has purchased over $100 million worth of Trump-affiliated tokens, garnering him a role as a WLF advisor and a chummy relationship with the president's sons Don Jr. and Eric. Earlier this month, the team behind $TRUMP announced that the token would soon be tradable on TRON after previously being available only on the Solana network. On July 23, that dream became reality courtesy of the LayerZero omnichain interoperability protocol and the 'global liquidity layer' Stargate Finance bridging protocol. The announcement was celebrated by Sun, who tweeted, 'All roads lead to #TRON. Let's take $TRUMP global.' The news didn't exactly light a fire under $TRUMP, the value of which fell on Thursday from around $10.30 to as low as $9.60 before staging a comeback. As of late Thursday, the token struggled to stay above the $10 mark. In fairness, some of that decline can be blamed on the recent unlocking of nearly $1 billion worth of the tokens, the sale of which might have boosted the president's bottom line by nearly $100 million. USDtb coming to 'Murica Well before Trump's signing of the GENIUS Act into law last week, crypto advocates were claiming that so-called 'offshore' stablecoin issuers would do whatever they needed to do to comply with the new rules of the road in order to gain/retain access to the U.S. market. Sure enough, Thursday brought word that Ethena Labs, issuer of the USDe and USDtb stablecoins, had struck a strategic partnership with digital asset custodian Anchorage Digital to launch USDtb in America as 'the first-ever stablecoin with a clear pathway to becoming' GENIUS-compliant. The Lisbon-based Ethena will utilize Anchorage's new turnkey stable-issuing platform to issue USDtb stateside. This will enable 'smoother integration with the U.S. financial system and provide institutions with more accessible, regulated pathways to hold USDtb.' Ethena CEO Guy Young claimed Anchorage, the only crypto operator currently possessing a U.S. bank charter, will help 'reinforce the foundation needed to continue scaling [USDtb] without compromising on speed, flexibility, or trust.' (USDtb's market cap is ~$1.45 billion, while USDe's cap is just under $7 billion.) Anchorage CEO Nathan McCauley said bringing USDtb to America's shores will help 'deliver even greater transparency and confidence' to Ethena's partners. Said partners could include Trump's WLF, with which Ethena struck a deal last December to incorporate sUSDe (a staked version of USDe) into the WLF platform (if and when it finally launches). Last month, Anchorage announced it had started 'a guided phase-out' of several stablecoins from its offering, including USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market cap issued by Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL). Critics found this move more than a little suspect, given that Anchorage is part of the consortium supporting the Global Dollar Network behind the rival USDG stablecoin issued by Paxos. Back to the top ↑ Tether next? Tether, issuer of the market-leading USDT stablecoin, recently celebrated its token's market cap topping $162 billion (currently standing at $162.6 billion). USDT is the most well-known 'offshore' stablecoin, but Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino keeps claiming that the company has a plan to make USDT GENIUS-compliant. Ardoino previously floated the idea of issuing a new U.S.-focused stablecoin while preserving USDT's use as a dollar substitute in emerging markets. But Ardoino declared last week that Tether was 'working very, very hard to make sure we comply with the foreign issuer pathway within the GENIUS Act.' Ardoino doubled down on this claim this week, telling Bloomberg Television that Tether was 'well in progress of establishing our U.S. domestic strategy.' This strategy will focus on 'U.S. institutional markets, providing an efficient stablecoin for payments but also for interbank settlements and trading.' GENIUS gives foreign issuers a three-year window in which to become compliant, so Ardoino has some wiggle room in which to at least appear to be doing what Tether says it's willing to do. Like submitting reserves to a third-party audit, something Tether has never done, despite declaring four years ago that an audit was 'months, not years' away. GENIUS requires stablecoin issuers to hold fiat reserves in a narrow range of assets, mostly cash, U.S. Treasury bills, and their equivalents. But Tether's most recent 'attestation' of its reserves shows a variety of non-approved assets, including nearly $9 billion in 'secured loans,' nearly $8 billion in BTC tokens, and $4.5 billion in undefined 'other assets.' To comply with GENIUS, Tether would have to convert those 'other assets' to cash, call in its loans to parties unknown, and sell its BTC. That last action would prove particularly unpopular with the BTC faithful, given the downward pressure this would put on BTC's fiat price. Presumably, Michael Saylor can be relied on to borrow more billions to absorb this excess supply. Back to the top ↑ Stablecoin growth projections overly optimistic? Combined, USDT and Circle's USDC ($64.7 billion cap) account for the bulk of the total $266.1 billion in dollar-denominated stables circulating in the wild. GENIUS is expected to inflate the dollar-denominated stable cap, although the scale of that inflation is a matter of some debate. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has suggested this figure could surge to $3.7 trillion by the end of the decade, while less conflicted observers have suggested a mere half-a-trillion increase might be a better bet. That $500 billion forecast came courtesy of JPMorgan (NASDAQ: JPM) analysts, who suggested this week that Bessent's estimates were 'far too optimistic.' The analysts added that 'the idea that stablecoins will replace traditional money for everyday use is still far from reality.' The analysts warned that 'liquidity investors, whether retail or institutional, are not going to immediately jump into payment stablecoins as a cash alternative given their conservative nature in terms of how they manage their cash as a source of liquidity.' The analysts went on to say they found it 'hard to believe that the market could grow substantially larger over the next few years as the infrastructure/ecosystem that supports stablecoins is far from developed and will take time to build out. While adoption is poised to grow further, it might be at a slower pace than what some might anticipate.' Bank of America (BoA) (NASDAQ: BAC) issued a research note last week suggesting the dollar-denominated market cap could grow by a 'relatively modest' $25-$75 billion in the short term. The note added that it could take 2-3 years for broader adoption of stablecoins to really make itself felt. Back to the top ↑ Crypto, fintechs seek Trump's help v JPMorgan Back to JPMorgan, on July 23, a coalition of fintech and crypto firms sent a joint letter to the White House asking for help in kiboshing plans by the Wall Street banker to impose new fees for accessing bank customers' data. JPM announced the fees, which target third-party data aggregators like Plaid that serve as bank-to-fintech bridges, a couple of weeks ago. Crypto operators are rightfully concerned that the aggregators will pass on the costs of the fees. So the Blockchain Association, the Crypto Council for Innovation, and the Digital Chamber all added their names to the letter sent to President Trump. The letter begins with some flattery about the president consistently standing for 'innovation, competition, and individual freedom.' The letter then warns of the grave threat that 'large, incumbent banks' pose to life, liberty, and the pursuit of speculative riches. By suing to block implementation of the 'open banking rule,' these banks are allegedly 'exploiting regulatory uncertainty to preserve their market position.' In doing so, the banks are 'undermining [Trump's] agenda and denying Americans access to the future of finance.' The letter accuses the banks of 'debanking Americans,' raising the specter of the Operation ChokePoint 2.0 conspiracy theory and preying on the fact that Trump has railed against the debanking efforts allegedly implemented under Democratic presidents. Nonetheless, the letter claims this 'is not a partisan issue.' The letter urges Trump to act before July 29, the date by which the government is required to respond in court to the open banking lawsuit. The government is urged to 'ask the court to affirm that consumers, not big banks, control their financial data and have the right to access and share it with companies of their choice at no cost.' The open banking rule was finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) late last year. In May, the CFPB reversed its stance, claiming that the rule 'exceeds the Bureau's statutory authority and is arbitrary and capricious.' The irony quotient of the fintech/crypto letter is high, given the tech/crypto sectors' longstanding efforts to clip the CFPB's wings, with some calling for the outright abolition of the bureau. Back to the top ↑ Crypto council's homework submitted on time On July 23, Bo Hines, vice-chair of the President's Working Group on Digital Assets, tweeted that the Group's mandated 180-day report to the White House had been submitted and would be released publicly on July 30. That report was to cover a variety of crypto-related subjects, the most notable of which was how to achieve Trump's stated plans for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile. The former is to be made up of BTC already in the government's possession, while the latter is to be made up of other tokens under government control. The question of how much BTC the government controls became a major controversy last week when the U.S. Marshalls Service (USMS) released data showing slightly less than 29,000 BTC under its control. This alarmed many, including Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), who believed the actual figure was 198,012 tokens. However, as observers were quick to point out, the USMS held 'forfeited' assets, while the 198,012 total represented all assets 'seized' by the government through various criminal and civil enforcement actions. The ultimate ownership of many of these 'seized' tokens has yet to be determined. The blockchain analysts at Arkham felt the need to weigh in on this brouhaha this week, tweeting an accounting of known U.S. government digital wallets. The BTC tally matches that 198,000 figure, none of which has moved in four months, putting a cork in those 'the gubmint sold its BTC' rumors. But again , control over assets doesn't necessarily equate to ownership. Among the Working Group's remit for their report was to contemplate ways in which the BTC reserve might be augmented, aka via the acquisition of new tokens. The caveat was that this could only be accomplished by 'budget neutral' methods, so all eyes will be on what creative accounting the report's authors might concoct. Back to the top ↑ Watch: Teranode & the Web3 world with edge-to-edge electronic value system title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Globe and Mail
23-07-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Tron Inc. to Ring The Nasdaq Opening Bell on July 24, 2025
Winter Park, Florida, July 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tron Inc. (Nasdaq: TRON) (the 'Company'), an innovation leader at the intersection of blockchain, entertainment and digital assets, today announced it will ring the Nasdaq Stock Market Opening Bell on Thursday, July 24, 2025. The ceremony will be led by Justin Sun, Founder of the TRON Blockchain and Global Advisor to Tron Inc., live from the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square — heralding the Company's bold transformation into next-generation technology and digital innovation. 'Ringing the Nasdaq Opening Bell marks a powerful milestone in Tron Inc.'s journey,' said Rich Miller, CEO of Tron Inc. 'With the addition of Justin Sun as our Global Advisor and our continued expansion into blockchain-powered treasury holdings, this moment highlights our long-term vision to build shareholder value through innovation and strategic leadership.' Investors can tune into the live broadcast of the Opening Bell ceremony via About Tron Inc. (formerly SRM Entertainment, Inc.) Tron Inc. (formerly SRM Entertainment, Inc.) is a publicly traded company pioneering blockchain-integrated treasury strategies. As the public company with the largest TRON (TRX) tokens holdings, Tron Inc. is committed to transparency, and the adoption of decentralized finance for long-term value creation. In addition, through its wholly owned subsidiary, the Company designs, develops, and manufactures custom merchandise which includes toys and souvenirs for the world's largest theme parks and other entertainment venues. Many of the Company's products are based on award winning multi-billion-dollar entertainment franchises that are featured in popular movies and books. The products are distributed worldwide at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Universal Parks and Destinations, United Parks and Resorts – SeaWorld, Six Flags and other attractions. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as 'may,' 'will,' 'expect,' 'anticipate,' 'aim,' 'estimate,' 'intend,' 'plan,' 'believe,' 'is/are likely to,' 'potential,' 'continue' or other similar expressions. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's continued expansion into blockchain-powered treasury holdings and long-term vision to build shareholder value through innovation and strategic leadership. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the risk factors discussed in the Risk Factors and in Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations sections of our Forms 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed with the SEC and available at Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review other factors that may affect its future results in the Company's registration statement and other filings with the SEC. Additional factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the SEC, which are available for review at The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations that arise after the date hereof, except as may be required by law.
Coin Geek
17-06-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Sun taking TRON public in US, Trump family denies involvement
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Justin Sun is taking his TRON blockchain public in the U.S., while growing ties to the Trump family could complicate passage of U.S. stablecoin legislation. On June 16, the Financial Times broke the news that the TRON blockchain, founded by Justin Sun, plans to go public on the Nasdaq via a reverse merger with SRM Entertainment, a struggling theme-park merchandise supplier. The report was quickly confirmed by SRM, which announced that it had reached a deal with 'a private investor' who will take a $100 million equity investment in SRM. As a result, SRM will rebrand as Tron Inc and Sun (aka the 'investor') has been named an advisor to the new entity. The deal will also see SRM issue 100,000 new shares of its Series B Convertible Preferred Stock, which will be convertible to 200 million shares of SRM's common stock. There will also be 220 million warrants to acquire common shares at $0.50 apiece, bringing the total investment to $210 million. SRM plans to use the funds to 'initiate a TRON Token (TRX) Treasury Strategy.' Like many of the firms that have launched 'treasury' strategies in recent months, SRM was a loss-making company with little hope of pulling out of its financial spiral. In April, SRM was granted a six-month reprieve of Nasdaq's October 2024 threat to delist the stock due to its inability to stay above the $1 minimum bid price. News of the Sun deal appears to have leaked late last week, as SRM's share price—which had been mired around $0.60 for most of June—more than doubled by June 13. The shares closed Monday around $9.19, a modest 534% rise for the day. The deal was brokered by Dominari Securities, a Nasdaq-listed firm with a colorful history that's based out of Trump Tower in Manhattan and added President Trump's sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., to its list of advisors in February. Dominari's share price, which was struggling to stay above $1 at the time, shot up over $12. Each brother received 750,000 Dominari shares at the time they joined, stakes that are currently worth $3.75 million apiece. Dominari also supplied the shell company that morphed into the American Bitcoin Corp (ABTC) block reward mining venture the Trumps launched this spring with miner Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT). The FT reported that Eric Trump was expected to take a role as advisor to Tron Inc. but Eric tweeted Monday that 'I'm the biggest fan of Tron and love @justinsuntron – he is a great friend and an icon in the crypto space. That said the [FT's claim] is inaccurate – I don't have public involvement.' (The word 'public' may be doing some heavy lifting there.) Regardless, Sun continues to deepen his ties to the Trump family's crypto ventures, which started last year with Sun buying $75 million worth of WLFI, the governance token of the Trump-controlled decentralized finance (DeFi) project World Liberty Financial (WLF). WLF subsequently appointed Sun as an advisor and both Eric and Don Jr. have praised Sun via their personal X accounts. Sun later bought more than $20 million worth of the $TRUMP memecoin that was issued by the president just days before his inauguration in January. Sun's status as a $TRUMP whale granted him access to last month's gala dinner at a Trump-owned golf course for the top 220 $TRUMP holders. It wasn't that long ago that Sun didn't dare set foot on U.S. soil, partly because of his legal difficulties with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) but also over concerns that the Department of Justice (DOJ) might be waiting with unsealed criminal charges. But the SEC has since mothballed its civil complaint, and the DOJ is under new management, leaving Sun free to come and go as he pleases. Following the SRM announcement—but before Eric's denial of having any role in the deal—Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) tweeted that '[t]he crypto industry would have a lot more credibility if they called out growing number of criminals who seem to really like their toys. Including the Trump family.' A GENIUS move? Sun was quoted in the SRM release saying 'stablecoins and blockchain are revolutionizing global payments.' SRM CEO Rich Miller praised TRON as 'the industry leader for cross border settlement in US dollar stablecoin.' For the record, TRON's native token TRX isn't a stablecoin, and while TRON does host the majority ($78.7 billion) of USDT, the market-leading dollar-denominated stablecoin issued by Tether, Sun has not been shy about promoting USD1, the stablecoin launched by Trump's WLF this spring. TRON recently started to mint USD1, and the Sun-linked HTX (formerly Huobi) became the first digital asset exchange to list USD1 as a trading option in May. USD1's market cap has been stuck around $2.1 billion for a while now, but could that be about to change? It will be interesting to see whether Sun's new deal might impact Tuesday's Senate floor vote on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. GENIUS passed some procedural votes with a significant number of Dems joining their Republican colleagues, but the publicity surrounding yet another Sun/Trump tie-up—Eric's denial notwithstanding—could cause some of these pro-crypto Dems to rethink their support when it comes to the final vote. It brings to mind last week's Decrypt article, in which an unidentified crypto lobbyist griped that the Trump family and its crypto venture partners 'hate us. They announce a new product every time there's a key vote' on legislation in Congress. Back to the top ↑ Trump's next filing should be a doozy On June 15, the Financial Times reported on a June 13 filing with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics detailing the president's 2024 income and assets. The filing lists nearly $57.4 million derived from Trump's WLF revenue, as well as his control of 15.75 billion WLFI (out of a total supply of 100 billion). Trump earned $1.1 million via the sale of branded non-fungible tokens (NFTs), while Trump's wife, Melania, earned nearly $217,000 from her own NFT collection. The filing also shows Trump holds between $1 million and $5 million in the Ethereum network's native ETH token (likely earned via his four different NFT collections). The filing only details income/assets from 2024, meaning it lacks WLF contributions from this year. Nor does it include the over $400 million in fees from $TRUMP memecoin sales, contributions from the ABTC mining venture, or the crypto activities of his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) (NASDAQ: DJT). Speaking of TMTG, the U.S. SEC gave its stamp of approval last week to the company's 'BTC treasury' strategy, aka raising $2.4 billion to buy BTC and give investors a reason to buy the company's shares. TMTG generates little revenue (less than $1 million in the first quarter of 2025) from its actual business operations, which include the Truth Social platform. TMTG's long-term plan could see it raise up to $12 billion to fund additional BTC purchases at some future date. But investors seem unimpressed, as TMTG opened Monday's trading at $19.52, less than half its $43 peak in January. The shares continued their downward trajectory on Monday, closing out the day at $18.67 (-4.35%). On June 16, TMTG filed a new application for a Truth Social Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF (exchange-traded fund). The precise makeup of the new ETF has yet to be determined but 'is initially expected to approximate a three-to-one ratio of the value' of BTC to the value of the ETH it holds. TMTG previously announced plans to issue multiple crypto-focused ETFs and filed an application with the SEC earlier this month to launch the Truth Social Bitcoin ETF. The tokens in TMTG's ETFs will be custodied by Foris DAX Trust Co, an offshoot of the digital asset exchange. Back to the top ↑ Trump campaign 'planted crypto flag' to attract minority voters At last week's State of Crypto Summit in New York presented by the Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) exchange, President Trump sent a pre-recorded video to address those in attendance. To no one's surprise, Trump's talk consisted primarily of listing his efforts to loosen crypto regulations and reminding everyone how much worse off they'd be without him in their corner. Also appearing at the summit (in person) was Chris LaCivita, who co-managed the president's 2024 election campaign. Coinbase appointed LaCivita to its Global Advisory Council shortly after Trump's inauguration and LaCivita appeared eager to remind Summit attendees of the ties that should bind them to the president's party. LaCivita also revealed that Republicans decided to 'plant our flag on [the crypto] issue' because it offered 'an opportunity to reach a wider swath of voters, and maybe ones that were a little outside of the, uh, of the Republican, you know, box.' Republicans have traditionally struggled to make inroads with minority voters, including Black, Hispanic and Asian groups. But these groups report significantly higher rates of digital asset ownership than white voters, offering a possibility for outreach that the GOP was only too eager to exercise. LaCivita admitted that Republicans 'have waged campaigns that at times have been accused of subtraction' rather than trying to grow their 'tent' beyond their base. Enter crypto, which 'gave us an opportunity to establish common ground with an area and a demographic that we need to expand in in order to be successful.' Back to the top ↑ Tanks, no thanks A couple of days after the Summit, Coinbase was a high-profile sponsor of the president's military parade through the streets of Washington, D.C., with its logo conspicuously displayed behind the president's podium. Coinbase's involvement in the highly polarizing event didn't go down well with crypto community members who saw this public embrace of state power as antithetical to Bitcoin's individualistic origins. Many also saw CEO Brian Armstrong as hypocritical, given his 2020 op-ed that suggested employees who wish to engage in political advocacy might want to find employment elsewhere. The Coinbase execs who've publicly defended the sponsorship have argued that the event was celebrating the Army's 250th birthday, not any one politician or party. However, much of the controversy surrounding the parade was because that day was also the president's 79th birthday. So far, Trump has yet to announce any similar celebrations for the Navy or Marine Corps, both of which celebrate their own 250th birthdays this year, just not on his birthday. Coinbase made a seven-figure contribution to Trump's inauguration committee and has signed on as a 'major sponsor' of America250, the 2026 party for the country's 250th birthday. But the company has repeatedly pointed out that its political efforts are bipartisan and will support politicians of any stripe if they're sufficiently pro-crypto. However, it's precisely this mercenary approach that seems to have unnerved some crypto supporters, the suggestion that a party or politician's overall policies can be disregarded so long as they continue to advance crypto's cause. Back to the top ↑ Watch: Bringing the Metanet to life with Teranode title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
