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The Verge
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
How I shorted $TRUMP coin (and got to have dinner with the President)
Last month, Donald Trump pushed the boundaries of government and financial ethics by announcing a contest: whoever bought and held the highest amount of the $TRUMP meme coin for an entire month would win an invite to a private dinner with the President. That dinner took place on Thursday at the Trump National Golf Course in Virginia, with attendees reportedly dropping nearly $394 million on $TRUMP in order to win the privilege. According to an analysis by The Guardian of the winners' wallets, over half of them lost money participating in this contest. But that's only if you're analyzing the wallets visible on the contest site's leaderboard. The real money was being made elsewhere. 'Bet you 10 percent of dinner participants are doing this' I interviewed an enthusiastic crypto trader who figured out how to win the contest without losing any money: buy enough $TRUMP to get onto the leaderboard — and then in a separate wallet on a separate exchange, buy $TRUMP perpetual futures that would be profitable if (or as he saw it, when) the value of $TRUMP dropped. Yes, he did The Big Short, except with Donald Trump's meme coin. 'Bet you 10 percent of dinner participants are doing this,' he told me before the contest ended. 'Everyone knows $TRUMP price will fall inevitably as more supply comes online in the future and gets dumped on retail.' When I spoke to him again after the dinner, he told me that 'the majority of people I spoke with, particularly the crypto traders and folks who are very close to the crypto ecosystem, are like, 'Yeah, I dumped this. I already sold the coin.'' 'A lot of people put on the same hedge trade as I did, because they didn't wanna take risk on the coin,' he added. I can't reveal his name, his position on the leaderboard, how much he spent, or the dates of specific trades he made. I can say that he did this for shits and giggles. But as he told me, when there's such a clear and obvious set of financial incentives behind the $TRUMP dinner contest, it's worth making the gamble. Did it pay off? 'Um, I basically was flat,' he said. 'I originally wanted to make some money, but I think the shorting I did — it was okay?' He did, however, get a free dinner out of it. The following interview has been edited for clarity. Let's just start from the beginning. What made you want to enter this? I think meme coins have a lot of staying power because humans just want things to gamble on. What was fascinating when the Trump token launched in January right before the inauguration, was that it effectively was like a black hole that sucked money away from all these other tokens in the ecosystem. That's why the Trump token ran up to some preposterous number immediately after it was dropped. When I saw this competition launch, it was clear that there was going to be a tremendous amount of grift in this space, and the presidential family was only interested in self-enrichment and all that. It was clear that there was going to be a tremendous amount of grift in this space But putting that aside, I've just been interested in the Trump token and I think I've just been structurally bearish, because the Trump token has a bunch of supply that's currently controlled by, effectively, the Trump family and the associates. It's only a matter of time before the supply unlocks. When that supply unlocks, in the crypto community, people call this dumping: they'll just dump it onto retail and that's how they get their exit liquidity. So that's one way the Trump family can make money. The other way is obviously whenever there's trades that happen, the trading fees also accrue to the family. I know that the Trump token is going to go down. If you put a gun into my head and ask, what will the price be two years from now? It's going to be much lower than where it is today. When this contest launched, I was like, okay, this is clearly a way for the affiliates and the Trump family to find a way to drive up the price temporarily. And having been in this space for a while, it's clear that these events only drive the price up for a period of time and then people lose interest. Unless you feed them something else, it's going to drop. Everyone expects the token to dump They launched the contest right around when the first tranche of Trump tokens were going to unlock, which was supposed to be 90 days after the launch of the token back in January. And so this whole contest was kind of timed at an apt moment where it's like, okay, supply's going to unlock. Everyone expects the token to dump. But then, on Twitter, they agreed to delay the unlock for another 90 days. But once the unlock happens and they start dumping, that's when the price is going to drop a lot. So this contest was interesting. I was like, okay, well, I feel like I can put on a trade here where I'm not taking on any real risk and I think it'll be cool to meet random people at this dinner and see who else is interested. It seems like there are a lot of folks from out of the country who are flying in to attend the dinner, and a lot of crypto whales. There's one that I follow, he's mentioned in his Telegram that he's one of the big holders. He's talked these last few days about how he's preparing for this dinner. I use my personal funds. All the crypto trading I do is with my personal funds. Some of the trading I do is on Coinbase through a centralized exchange. And the rest of the trading I do is on chain through self-custody wallets. When this opportunity came up, the only way you can actually be in a position to be in the top 220 is if you own $TRUMP tokens in a self-custody wallet. Some of the exchanges, including Coinbase, allow you to buy the $TRUMP token, but that would not count towards this contest. What I did was I moved stablecoins like USDC to my Solana wallet, and then I used a decentralized exchange to buy the $TRUMP token. The way the contest works is you have to register your wallet before you are counted towards the ranking system. And unfortunately, I did that like a couple days late, so I had to size up a little bit more to ensure that I could catch up to the people who had registered a couple days prior. But that's a nuance. So explain the process of shorting $TRUMP coin on a secondary market. Like how does one do that? I am a dumb person who only understands shorting markets through watching The Big Short. Basically when you short, you're hoping that the price goes down, right? And the mechanism of shorting here is slightly different than shorting stocks, but we don't need to go into the specifics here. The way to short [crypto] is, you can do it in two ways. One is through a centralized exchange that offers, effectively, shorting services. And what I mean here by shorting services is, there is a 'perpetual future' that is offered at these exchanges. When I talk about exchanges that offer this, it's mostly going to be like Binance or Bybits and some of the bigger exchanges outside of the US. Coinbase is very far behind when it comes to offering derivative products that goes above and beyond just buying the token. I couldn't do it through Coinbase, and I can't short through an exchange like Binance, because there's a lot of restrictions around who can actually use Binance. I'm in the US and Binance has very strict VPN rules. I can't just open a Binance account and short. The only real way for me was to short on a decentralized exchange So the only real way for me was to short on a decentralized exchange, which has actually become really popular in the last year or so. It's like the same concept as shorting on Binance, but you can do it on chain. I use a service called Hyper Liquid, which is a very popular decentralized exchange. And on this exchange, they offer derivative products that basically track the movement of different tokens. And so they offer, effectively, $TRUMP perpetual futures, and you can effectively initiate a short position through that. I'm happy to go into the details if you want, but that's like the high level. Yeah, yes, please please tell me these details. So that is basically how to set up the short position. Conceptually, there's a few things to keep in mind. First thing is: because I'm shorting in a separate wallet that's completely detached from $TRUMP, I have to put up additional capital in another wallet to do this. It's not like I can just use my $TRUMP tokens as collateral and use the same pool of money to short. And the way shorting works and the way perpetual futures work in general is you put up a certain margin. So let's keep it simple: say I put up $100k in margin and I choose to short the $TRUMP token. Now, if $TRUMP goes up in price, then I'm hurting, because I'm betting on the token falling. If the $TRUMP token doubles in price, well, then I will have lost a hundred thousand dollars in which case, my margin gets wiped out and this [futures] contract will have to be closed because I've lost all my money. If the token goes down in price, that's when I profit — as long as I close out the position in the green. So you basically are juggling two wallets. One is the wallet in which you're holding all this $TRUMP coin. The other one is like, how would you describe it? Is that the money that you're generating in order to pay for participating in the contest? The most important wallet here is the Solana wallet with the $TRUMP tokens, because that's what's being used by the contest organizers to determine who makes the top 220. But as I mentioned earlier, I am structurally bearish on the $TRUMP token and I wouldn't want to go for dinner and like, see my money go down when the $TRUMP token goes down in price. I decided I wanted to basically put on a hedge, where, using the other wallet and the short position, I'm basically agnostic to any sort of price movement. That's the reason why I set up the other wallet. I could have taken on the price risk, but that's pretty risky, because typically what happens with these events is that as we get close to the end of the contest date, people start dumping the $TRUMP tokens. The value of the $TRUMP token will have gone down — let's say it went down to 90,000 — it would be offset by the short wallet, which would be like 110,000. And then they add up to 200,000, which is how much I hypothetically put in from the start. Did you make money off of this? Um, I basically was flat. I originally wanted to make some money, but I think the shorting I did — it was okay? I basically just broke even on this entire trade Let me take a step back. So initially I shorted the same amount as the token. But then as the time went on, as we got close to the contest end date, I decided to increase the size of the short position, because I thought that based on the thesis I had, people are going to start selling because there's nothing to look forward to. And so I increased that size. But it just so happened that towards the end of the contest was also when the crypto markets started ripping after May 8th. So net-net, I think I basically just broke even on this entire trade. Define the crypto markets 'ripping.' May 8th was basically the Thursday right before that weekend when the US representatives were going to meet the Chinese representatives in Switzerland [ for tariff negotiations ]. That day was also when the UK deal announcement was made. And so the market basically took that as a bullish sign, and then that got parlayed into the positive euphoria of the US-China negotiations. Everything started going up. Okay. So every market just started getting bullish. Yeah, all the tokens ran up a lot. If you look at the token price, $TRUMP coin on May 7th was roughly 11 bucks, and then on May 9th it was like 14 bucks. Over time that token has come down in price. But yeah, it ran up 40 percent in the span of like two days. What was the strategy going into the end game? Because it sounds like it was super volatile around the end and that's why you needed to increase your short position. I thought that towards the end, I could opportunistically make some profits by shorting more than I owned, if that makes sense. [ The previous week, the contest organizers announced a new incentive for winners to not sell the coin before the dinner: a rare 'TRUMP DIAMOND HANDS' NFT. ] What is the point of encouraging people to go diamond hands by offering this NFT? So I think this goes back to the incentives of Trump's affiliates, right? They have a lot of supply that they own. Last I looked, they own eighty percent of the supply. But all of that, as with many other [crypto] projects, gets locked up and only gets released over time, so that you don't have all this supply pressure on day one. Because then no one wants to buy the token. The whole point of the NFT and this subsequent rewards program that they've talked about, but haven't given the details for, is to incentivize people to hold the token longer. The longer people hold the token, then the price arguably would not fall as much. The only way to keep the price high is if you introduce all these little games to keep retail engaged The eventual setup, I'm sure, whether that's in three months or in a year or two, is that the affiliates will then have their supply unlock, and they will want to sell. They obviously want to sell at a higher price. And the only way to keep the price high is if you introduce all these little games to keep retail engaged and interested in holding tokens. Yeah, my understanding based on that tweet they sent is, they basically look at your wallet holdings on the day of the dinner and compare that to your wallet holdings on the last day of the contest. And so if those match or if you own more, then they'll give you an NFT. I was kind of dumb. What I should have done was, right before the 1:30PM cut off, I should have sold like, 90 percent of my tokens. In this way, on the dinner day, I would only have to buy 10 percent of what I bought previously, and I think I would qualify for this NFT. Wow. Have people done that? Well, the NFT hasn't been dropped yet. I don't know the specifics. There are definitely people who sold before the end of the deadline, and that's clear from even looking at that leaderboard page, right? There's one column with current holdings and a bunch were zeroed out, but they are still in the top 220 because it's a time-weighted calculation. Why did they do time-weighted calculations rather than like, just a cumulative amount of money you held at the end? I think this goes back to solving not only how much do you hold, but how long do you hold it for, and rewarding people differently. So if you held $60 over the entire stretch of the contest, you should be rewarded more than someone who held like $200 for one day on the last day. I think the time-weighted calculation effectively is trying to normalize for that. They also gave me a call the same day, which I thought was spam for a second How have the organizers been in their interactions with you for the contest and for the dinner and everything? They emailed me the day of, as soon as the contest ended, saying that I had made it into the top 220. And they also gave me a call the same day, which I thought was spam for a second. But when the voicemail thing came up, I'm like, oh, this is actually a real thing. So I picked up the phone and then they just confirmed that I got the email and that I would have to do a KYC [Know Your Customer check, part of anti-money laundering regulatory compliance for banks, crypto exchanges, and other entities] in order to qualify for the dinner. Please give us your data, references, whatever. Yeah, nothing that sophisticated. They outsourced it to another party and I just provided my name, my nationality, where I live. No social security number or anything like that. Plus my birthday. and I think they just ran like an external check to make sure that I wasn't a criminal or anything like that. I feel like it was pretty light vetting How thoroughly do you think they're been vetting you, how professional has the process been? I feel like it was pretty light vetting. I talked to someone about, let's say, getting into the White House and it's a lot more strict in terms of, you have to show your passport and all that. And here, you don't really have to do that. You just have to show your ID at the door. At least that's what they said. And as long as your ID matches the information you gave, you're fine. So I don't think the security is that strict, per se, but it's good enough, I guess. Have you participated in any contests like this or heard of anything similar? No, I have not. That's wild. This is rather innovative if one thinks about it in a 'divorced from most governmental ethics' manner. Did you read about how it's possible that Trump just doesn't show up to this? I did see something that basically said, yeah, based on the terms and conditions, the president does not have to be there, I think. Honestly, I think a lot of people aren't really there to see Trump. I could be totally wrong, but I get the sense from, let's say, like looking at the crypto whales' Telegram, that [they're] more interested in just meeting other crypto folks so that [they] can network. If Justin Sun is there, that's pretty good, right? Like being able to talk to him and maybe, you know, get his contact information and all that. I think for me and probably other people, we're more interested in seeing if there's any other interesting news that comes out of this dinner. I will have my wallet ready, and if some great news gets dropped at the dinner, that could potentially positively influence the $TRUMP token price or any other token price, I will buy it on the spot and try to profit. This is something that other attendees are thinking about doing too? I can't say with certainty, but based on that one Telegram guy, it seemed like it was implied. Like, if they announced a rewards program for a Trump thing – say, the NFT will be used for this, and then the rewards will give you some really impressive thing in three months, that could probably move the price. Then I would take on a short-term trade literally at the dinner table. That's why after the $TRUMP token dropped right before inauguration, I finally decided to download Truth Social That's a first mover advantage right there. In crypto, half of it is just being a first mover advantage. That's why after the $TRUMP token dropped right before inauguration, I finally decided to download Truth Social. I only follow Trump. He's the only guy I follow and I have notifications on, which actually served me well. Was it April 9th when he sent out that tweet saying that tariffs are now delayed for 90 days? That was first out on Truth Social and I saw that immediately, and I'm like, oh, time to trade my equities, because I will be first to the news. So he's dropped some nuggets for sure on his account. So the dinner itself is a good money making opportunity? Possibly. It's hard to say, but in the event that it does, there is some information that gets dropped, that could be actionable. Is there anything you're particularly proud of about the process of executing this short? I don't know if there's anything I'd really brag about or be like, super proud of. I think this hedge trade, for someone who's pretty involved in crypto, would be fairly obvious. Net-net, I think I broke even because I did basically go a bit big around my short towards the end of the contest. So that made up for some of the fees I had to pay and whatnot. I'm pretty happy. I feel like I didn't take on any risk and I'm able to go to this dinner. That's probably a win in my books. One thing is, if I had real capital, I would have tried to make the top 25. That requires a lot of money, which I don't have. I don't really care about seeing Trump at all. I care more about seeing who else is there, of the top 25 I think you'd have to have 200,000 tokens, so yeah, roughly like two, three million USD. And if you want to not take on the risk of the token price moving, you'd want to take a short position of roughly the same size. It would be like a four or five million dollar capital outlay to make it happen. But the benefit of being in the top 25 is you get to meet Trump, and also get to be in a more intimate networking session, which I would actually enjoy being at. I don't really care about seeing Trump at all. I care more about seeing who else is there, of the top 25. What was the minimum size of the wallet that made 220, do you know? It's hard to say because what someone could have done is they could have bought a lot initially, and then halfway through they sold most of them, because they were pretty confident that they would make the top 220, because it's time weighted. [Calculating out loud omitted.] I guess only fifty thousand [if you held the total amount from day one through the end]. Honestly, that's not a lot. It's not. Realistically that number is probably higher. The thing is, this is not like a $50,000 disbursement where you're never seeing that money again. After the dinner, you could choose to sell your token. Now, maybe the price will have moved from when you first bought it to when you sold it, but the actual loss, or potentially profit, is not obvious. Oh, that makes this some really interesting campaign finance implications. I guess the one thing I'll say is, the Trump team probably won't sell for a couple months at very least. And so whatever happens between now and then theoretically doesn't really impact the team, right? Because if they had not launched this dinner contest and they did nothing, and then right before the unlock happens, they launch another campaign or they do something weird like this, then that will immediately pump up the price because crypto is so reflexive. And they can then sell into the strength of the price movement, theoretically. But here, I think what they want to do is actually show that this $TRUMP token has utility, and that it's actually useful rather than just being a meme coin. And this is one way of making the $TRUMP token worth holding, because it's not just a meme. If you buy it, you can go to dinner, you can earn points. You can get an NFT. It's basically the playbook that a lot of folks will potentially run if they're launching a meme coin with utility value. Oh, utility value is definitely a good way of saying it. Yeah, utility value in the sense that yeah, you can go to dinner, you can get an NFT, you can earn points that will get you something in the future. But yeah, this is a little bit different from memes like Pepe or Doge or Shiba Inu. Those have zero utility values. They're literally just a meme. You can't go to a dinner if you own a lot of it. It's just a meme. The morning after the dinner: How are you? How was your crazy night out? It was good. And yeah, there was a sponsor who wanted to do an afterparty afterwards. They basically rented out the rooftop bar on top of the Marriott. I stayed out until 1 AM. But it was good. The actual event was quite interesting. The protests outside the dinner obviously were just kind of off-putting. I was like, damn, should I really walk into this thing? Getty Images I've actually never been to the Trump National. How is it as a venue? It's on the Potomac River. When you are in the club you can see the really nice golf course and then the river is right there. The room was long and the podium was right up in the front and the tables were almost set up in a way where there were many rows of tables, but not that many columns, if it makes sense. I didn't recognize this until maybe like, after an hour in, but people started taking seats because they wanted to be closer to the podium. And eventually, I'm like, damn, I gotta get a seat. But all that didn't end up mattering because when Trump walked in, basically like a celebrity, everyone rushed up to the front and pulled out their phones and started recording. Who did you meet that was interesting or fun? Justin Sun was there, it was just that everyone wanted to talk to him. I guess the only thing I could do was just say hi to him. There were a bunch of international folks. A few folks were from Poland, who came all the way here from Portugal, where they now live. There was a lot of Asian people there. I met some folks from South Korea. Some guys from France, Italy. There was this hedge fund manager from Croatia who came just to check this out. Some guy from Sweden. There were also some market-making firms, like really big in crypto, like Wintermute. And then another guy who works at Kronos Research. The organizers also brought some folks, like the founder of the Moonshot app. I guess Moonshot had partnered with folks with the $TRUMP launch back in January. He said he didn't buy any tokens because none of the employees are allowed to trade [the meme coins on their own platform, because it would be a conflict of interest], and so he was just invited by the organizers. [According to Crunchbase, Moonshot, an app that enables users to purchase meme coins, was acquired by Jupiter, a Solana trading platform. No named individuals appear to be publicly associated with either enterprise, although Jupiter's founder is apparently someone going by the name ' Meow.' The guest interviewed by The Verge did not recognize Meow from photos. – Ed.] There were a bunch of folks in the crypto ecosystem, now that I think about it, who actually had effectively insider knowledge that Trump was gonna launch a coin. They didn't know exactly what that was gonna be, but they knew it was coming and it was gonna be a real coin. For the first hour or two [after the announcement], people were wondering if Trump's account got hacked. I just thought that was interesting, that it was effectively prewired to a lot of folks. Ah, so like: if those people knew, then they had that first mover advantage for that full hour – that it was a legitimate coin? Yeah, the public didn't know whether it was an intentional drop or if some hackers hacked the Twitter account. I ended up meeting one of the top winners, and he was telling me how he hedged his trade Did you find any really diehard MAGA people there? I'm sure that there were a couple of folks. I just never got a chance to speak with someone who's like, super pro-Trump. I'd say the majority of people I spoke with, particularly the crypto traders and folks who are very close to the crypto ecosystem are like, yeah, I dumped this. I already sold the coin. A lot of people put on the same hedge trade as I did, because they didn't wanna take risk on the coin. I ended up meeting one of the top winners, and he was telling me how he hedged his trade. So effectively, he was taking on no price risk. Now the only thing is when you short these tokens, there's a funding cost, but because he had such a big position the funding was actually pretty significant. So he said he paid, I don't know, like $50,000 in funding costs, but to him it was still worth it, especially since he got a watch that's supposedly worth $100,000 if you're in the top four. Wait, they gave out watches? Yeah. When Justin went up and gave the speech, after that, he got the watch. Honestly $50,000 to meet the president and get a watch that's twice that amount, is a pretty good deal. Yeah. I had no idea yet that there's a I think the host referenced this — like, if you want a watch, just go on the website. I was like, this is real? And then I actually went on the website and it turned out it is. Swiss-made chrono movement – oh my God, there are so many watches. Do you see that one on the very front page? They gave out two of those as prizes for raffle winners. Oh, that's only $500, man. Yeah, I know, right? Lame. I guess you can't yet buy the $100,000 watch on this website. They were specially designed and they only were able to have two ready for the event, and the other two will get shipped to the winners. [The website currently lists the ' Crypto President Tourbillon Watch ' for pre-order, claiming that 'only 10' have been made. – Ed.] Did people post photos or selfies, or was there a sense of discretion? There were obviously crypto traders who didn't wanna give their real names, and some folks who were trying to be camera shy and avoid the limelight, but I feel like for the most part, people were taking selfies and they were just having a good time. And there were photographers walking around taking photos of everyone. And then at the end, this was after Trump and after all the gifts were given out, the host was like, everyone put on your hat that you got — it's in my bag, it's a Trump meme dinner hat — let's all put it on and take a photo and then hashtag 'trumpmemedinner' or whatever. [The White House is refusing to release the guest list with names of attendees. The New York Times has since said that it has acquired a copy of that list. Although photos of the gifted hats have circulated on social media, no related hashtag seems to have taken off. – Ed.] Oh, okay, so they actually encouraged you to put it on the Internet. I guess the host took the photo and it was like a selfie or something. The other funny moment was during the Trump speech. For the most part, it was just him talking about his campaign, and about how he beat Biden, and blah, blah, blah, how we were in a terrible place with crypto before he got elected and now we're in a great place. That sounds exactly like a thing Trump would say. That was pretty accurate. At one point, the microphone made a cracking sound and then he was like, whoops, my ear. and he made a joke referencing the assassination attempt. How did you figure out about the afterparty? Was it the official afterparty? A lot of folks were saying there was gonna be some afterparty exclusive to VIPs, like the top 25 holders. There were a few folks who were trying to get into this party, but then it turns out it was actually not that exclusive. This MemeCore group, the number two holder, they rented out space at the rooftop of this Marriott and effectively invited everyone. So when you were leaving the venue, they had a couple buses that would come every 10 minutes and they were like, yeah, feel free to take this bus and we'll take you to the after-party. A lot of people ended up going. [On TikTok, an attendee wearing a giant mask of what appears to be the MemeCore mascot, was accused of covering his face ' to hide their identities ' at 'Trump's crypto bribery event.' – Ed.] How was the afterparty? Was it well funded? They had an open bar, free drinks. It was fine, nothing like that noteworthy.
Gizmodo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Best VPN for Crypto Trading: 5 Reliable Options for 2025
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NordVPN is a perfect companion if you're often traveling, as it works on all devices and operating systems you can fathom. Plus, it packs 10 simultaneous connections to protect all your devices at no additional cost. Speaking of costs, NordVPN is a smart investment. You spend roughly $3/mo now and enjoy the VPN for 24+ months, while also having 30 days to get a full refund if you're unsatisfied. Visit NordVPN Pros 256-bit GCM encryption Double VPN servers Unblocks all major crypto websites Malware blocking NordLynx and NordWhisper protocols No-logging policy Cons No malware protection in the Basic plan Slightly complicated app design 2. ExpressVPN ExpressVPN is renowned for its speed and ease of use, ranking it almost at the top of this list. No doubt, it's a widely adopted VPN for trading crypto because of its high-speed servers in 105 countries. ExpressVPN uses the Lightway Turbo protocol to beef up its server speed. This results in excellent reliability and the ability to unblock all crypto-trading platforms, from Kraken and Coinbase to Binance and Bybit. ExpressVPN doesn't hold punches security-wise, and uses tried-and-tested 256-bit encryption, with an automatic kill switch to prevent leaks. Like NordVPN, with which ExpressVPN is often compared, this VPN blocks ads and trackers on all devices. As of recently, ExpressVPN offers ID Theft Insurance, preventing your sensitive information from ending up in the wrong hands. Dedicated IP addresses are there, as well! ExpressVPN is a privacy-inclined service, putting huge emphasis on its no-logging policy. Apart from third-party audits, ExpressVPN has proof of its brave promises in the court. It's a great all-purpose VPN for trading crypto, streaming on Netflix, and even torrenting safely. We want to stress its device support, which is all-inclusive. You'll be able to use it on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS. Although 8 simultaneous connections are on the shallow side, we think it's plenty to keep your devices protected. But what about the price? ExpressVPN is honestly a tad pricier than most of its rivals — not by much. There's a 61% discount with 4 free months for its 24-month plan. We recommend this plan, but whichever you snatch, you'll be covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee, making it a great deal. Visit ExpressVPN Pros Great speeds Fast 10 Gbps servers globally Dedicated IP addresses ID Theft Insurance Easy-to-use apps Support for all devices Cons Not the cheapest VPN No MultiHop 3. Private Internet Access Private Internet Access is used by crypto enthusiasts who want multi-device protection and privacy while doing their jobs. It's a VPN with unlimited simultaneous connections whose record-breaking low prices spike excitement in many newcomers. But that's hardly a full story. PIA VPN offers bank-grade encryption, MultiHop servers, and MACE for blocking ads. Its apps also house obfuscation realized by the Shadowsocks proxy. WireGuard and OpenVPN are used to ensure both speed and security, and very often, a blend of both worlds. The VPN doesn't keep logs of your whereabouts, and like ExpressVPN, this statement was proven in court. Besides, PIA is stringent about its use of RAM servers that add to your privacy by being wiped clean of data with each restart. We just scratched the surface, though. PIA, for example, comes with optional dedicated IP addresses with some of the lowest prices on the market. For about $1.4/mo, you can also obtain its Windows Antivirus and protect your crypto-trading adventures from online threats. PIA has the largest server fleet now. With around 30,000 servers in 91 countries, it's easy to find a fast VPN server for trading crypto on your favorite platforms. PIA capitalizes on its timely 24/7 support, and while it lacks a Firestick TV app, it compensates with unlimited simultaneous connections, as said earlier. Now, price-wise, PIA costs considerably less than NordVPN and ExpressVPN. Roughly said, it's about $2/mo for the 24-month plan with 2 or 4 free months. Even if you splurge on its Antivirus as an added security measure, it's still less expensive than run-of-the-mill VPNs. Visit Private Internet Access Pros The most affordable pick MultiHop connections Servers in 91 countries Optional virus protection Shadowsocks proxy Cons No Firestick TV app Virus protection is limited to Windows 4. Proton VPN Proton VPN is a versatile VPN usable for trading crypto. It has a premium plan that isn't pricey, bus packs more than essentials to trade crypto like a pro. But then, there's the free plan without bandwidth caps that would also work, albeit, with not many features offered. As always, we prioritize premium VPNs over free, so let's discuss it. The provider has over 12,000 servers in 117+ countries. It also offers proprietary Secure Core servers to enhance your encryption. Its Secure Core feature blocks ads and trackers, keeping things clean. In our tests, Proton VPN's speed was excellent as a result of WireGuard and its famous VPN Accelerator. Its apps have Stealth VPN, whose obfuscation helps you unblock crypto platforms and sway off network censorship. Proton VPN has many dedicated servers. You can use Tor Over VPN to pair the VPN with the Tor browser. But then, you'll find interesting servers for streaming and torrenting, both of which do their jobs impeccably. Proton VPN's privacy is market-leading, thanks to its Swiss jurisdiction and minimal logging. I mean, Proton keeps virtually nothing on its RAM servers, and is famous for this respectable practice. Similarly to its rivals, the provider uses AES encryption, but spices things up with a kill switch, DNS leak protection, and a Dark Web Monitor to protect you from data breaches. Proton VPN's longest plans should be your go-to, as outlined in our review. We opt for its 24-month plan, but even the 12-month plan is fairly inexpensive. Either way, you'll spend roughly a coffee a month one one of the most impressive VPNs for trading crypto in 2025. To make sure you get the lowest possible price, read our summary of the current promotional offers and valid coupons for Proton VPN. Visit Proton VPN Pros Audited no-log policy Tor Over VPN servers NetShield ad-blocker It offers a free plan Cons Not the best customer support It could be simpler to use 5. Surfshark Surfshark is more of an all-in-one suite than your everyday VPN. While the Starter package is more like the latter, its Surfshark One plan, which we recommend, includes antivirus for all devices. This ranks it among the safest VPNs you can use for crypto trading and all else. The provider has also joined forces with NordVPN, so it shares plenty with it. For example, it also offers MultiHop servers, obfuscation with the NoBorders feature, and an innovative IP Rotator that rotates your IP periodically without disconnecting from the VPN server. A huge advantage is speed—Surfshark is sometimes on par with ExpressVPN, despite the latter's higher price. While occasional slowdowns occur, Surfshark's pursuit of perfection is a bit more challenging. On the other hand, Surfshark offers both dedicated and static IP addresses within its apps. You'll also be able to use it for streaming and unblock over thirty Netflix libraries. Unlimited simultaneous connections are part of the deal, which translates to endless protection for all your devices. As a result, this renowned VPN for crypto helps you trade even on the fly. Surfshark's no-log policy has been verified multiple times by Deloitte and Cure53. Despite its Dutch jurisdiction (9 Eyes), Surfshark's attempts at preserving users' privacy are successful. This, as expected, comes down to RAM-based servers that prevent all forms of data logging. Last but not least, Surfshark is affordable and costs close to Private Internet Access. This means you'll enjoy this widely adopted VPN for trading crypto for a pocket change and not even feel like you're spending money. In reality, you barely do — that's the beauty of it. Visit Surfshark VPN Pros NoBorders obfuscation Antivirus for all devices IP Rotation tool Cons Occasionally slow speed Starter plan lacks some features Why Should You Use a VPN for Trading Crypto? Can you buy and sell crypto without a VPN? Sure. However, connecting to a server yields some excellent benefits that can improve your overall experience, in both crypto trading and doing mundane online tasks. Here are the most popular reasons for using the best VPN for crypto: Encryption: A simple connection to a server immediately encrypts your traffic. It's unreadable and untraceable by your ISP or another entity. This means no one can track your activities or steal your credentials, which ensures safe trading on all devices. A simple connection to a server immediately encrypts your traffic. It's unreadable and untraceable by your ISP or another entity. This means no one can track your activities or steal your credentials, which ensures safe trading on all devices. Unblocking crypto platforms: Have you tried to access a crypto platform, only to find it's blocked in your location or on a specific WiFi network? Don't worry. Changing your VPN location will do the trick. Connect to a server, get a new IP address, and access the website in seconds. Have you tried to access a crypto platform, only to find it's blocked in your location or on a specific WiFi network? Don't worry. Changing your VPN location will do the trick. Connect to a server, get a new IP address, and access the website in seconds. Online privacy: VPNs are known for their privacy and no-logging practices. Unlike crypto (and other) websites infamous for collecting data, VPNs are the opposite — they store nothing! This means you can surf online and not expose your activities to every prying eye. Despite being called VPNs for trading crypto, they provide countless other benefits. We mentioned streaming and torrenting, but you can use them for gambling, accessing VoIP services, playing online games, preventing ISP throttling, etc. VPNs have many uses which we explored in a separate article. Can I Buy a VPN Subscription With Crypto? Yes, you can, but not in every scenario. Regarding our list, you'll see mixed results. For example, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, Proton VPN, and Surfshark support crypto through third-party processors — usually CoinGate. Should you buy a VPN using crypto, however? It depends. Some providers have different terms of use in this case. In some cases, they won't issue a refund, let's say. However, our top picks treat crypto and 'normal' payments the same, leaving no room for discrimination. Just be aware that processing these payments might be slower, so don't be confused if your refund takes slower to arrive or your subscription isn't yet 'acknowledged' by the provider. Final Words Regardless of your activity — selling, buying, or staking cryptocurrencies, our recommended VPNs for crypto will keep things safe and secure. While not mandatory by any means, they aid your privacy, improve your security, and allow you to access blocked crypto websites. We've left you with five extraordinary providers, all tested by our diligent team of experts. With so much to offer, each provider is an adventure for itself. We hope our information so far is sufficient to pick the right one and enjoy reliable crypto trading on all your devices. Try NordVPN Risk-Free for 30 Days Frequently Asked Questions Any other questions left in the tank? We'll address them shortly in this section. 🆓 Are free VPNs for crypto trading any good? They could work, but only in a few cases in which the free provider is particularly good. Proton VPN's free version is great because it offers unlimited bandwidth, rock-solid security, and the same level of privacy. On the other hand, it disables the option to choose a server. Users also don't get premium security features and fast speeds, with streaming and torrenting being completely off the chart. The free version is good, but not outstanding overall, so don't get your hopes up. Oh, and Proton VPN is one of the better providers — other picks can be atrocious. You can expect heavy logging, stubborn DNS leaks, and other problems that'll plague the experience from top to bottom. 🪙 Can I trade crypto without a VPN? Yes, you can, but you're left without proper encryption and privacy. If a crypto website is blocked, also don't think you'll be able to unblock it unless you some how change your IP address. That 'somehow' is a VPN. 🌎 What's the best VPN location for crypto trading? This is hard to tell, but the best location is the one which blocks the least crypto-trading platforms. Experts usually recommend Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, Estonia, etc. These countries have crypto-friendly laws, which endorses effortless and worry-free trading. Some countries, like Morocco and China, block or partially restrict some platforms. Generally, it's not a good idea to use an IP address from such countries. Focus on the recommended locations instead. ⚖️ Is using a VPN for crypto trading legal? You'll find that VPNs are illegal in very few instances. This, in turn, means it's usually legal to use a VPN, and by extension, to trade crypto with one. Countries that banned cryptocurrencies deem their trading illegal, so even with a VPN, you're in the illicit territory. In theory, encryption and added security should work in your favor, but again, you're going against the law and that's never good. Region-locked crypto websites have anti-VPN stances, so unblocking them is 'disrespectful', but not illegal, because they won't sue you. Albeit, you might get a permanent account ban, so there's a risk of losing your valuable investments.
