Amid Tarrifs Backlash, Trump Finds ‘Close Friend’ In Crypto Company

As President Trump clashes with U.S. business leaders over tariffs, one industry will never take off its red hat—crypto. 

On the eve of his inauguration, the President launched $TRUMP. Last week, he extended “the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World,” dinner with the President at the Trump National Golf Club, to the memecoin’s top 220 investors. For the top 25 $TRUMP holders, there’s another “Most Exclusive Once in a Lifetime Invitation” to a private dinner and tour of the White House.

The announcement shot up the value of $TRUMP by 60 percent. Seeing the Trump family’s investment in cryptocurrency, one crypto enterprise has seized an opportunity to shape public policy. 

Back in March, Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of the cryptocurrency company Tether, was notably absent from Trump’s White House Crypto Summit, where the President lapped up praise from 22 crypto executives while announcing his plan to build a government stockpile of seized digital assets.

Ardoino was in DC at the time, posted a picture in the White House the day before the summit, and a picture on the steps of the Capitol on the day of the event. 

Per the New York Times’ latest story, he also shared an intimate private lunch near the White House with business leaders and lawmakers, including Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN).

Though Tether has not had FTX’s level of mainstream exposure since its founding in 2013, it’s name carries a lot of weight for those who monitor the crypto industry.

Unlike $TRUMP or $TUAH, ‘Tether tokens’ is a stablecoin and thus tied, or ‘tethered’ to the value of $USD. Except, unlike $USD, it is unregulated and therefore ideal for crime.

Around the time that Tether and two of its allegedly affiliated crypto entities settled a $18.5 million fraud investigation in New York, YouTube personality and cryptocurrency journalist Stephen Findeisen, or “Coffeezilla” published a 35-minute video about the company to his 4.2 million subscribers. Findeisen himself is a digital currency holder. 

That was 2021. In 2022, Tether was the subject of a New York Times piece titled “That Could Wreck Crypto.” In the article, Hilary Allen, a finance expert at American University, called Tether “the lifeblood of the crypto ecosystem… If it imploded, then the entire facade falls down.”

An Italian citizen with a distaste for American food, Ardoino has spent a lot of time in the States lobbying for the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act.

On its face, the GENIUS Act is a safeguard against a future FTX, but Democrats have criticized the legislation for including a “giant loophole” specifically for Tether— “one of Donald Trump’s close friends,” according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).  

Many industry leaders who were once supporters of Trump have publicly criticized the President’s economic policy, most notably tariffs.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency industry is more optimistic than ever about the next four years. Cryptocurrency does not rely on imports and could potentially benefit from low consumer confidence. 

The digital asset industry had a run of mainstream success but hit a wall at the end of 2022 when FTX filed for bankruptcy and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was picked up by U.S. authorities after allegedly fleeing to the Bahamas. 

Bankman-Fried was indicted—and later convicted— on seven criminal charges, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance law violations. If this so-called “backbone” of the crypto industry goes the way of FTX, it will likely bring down all other digital assets with it, including $TRUMP.