- President Donald Trump is building a 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House using privately raised funds.
- Coinbase, Ripple, and Tether are listed among the project’s financial backers alongside Amazon, Microsoft, and HP.
President Donald Trump’s latest endeavor is a massive addition to the White House grounds, a new “state ballroom” measuring approximately 90,000 square feet, to be constructed in place of or atop the existing East Wing.
Unlike past White House renovations, this project is entirely privately funded. President Trump and a coalition of private donors are covering the costs, with the administration stressing that “no taxpayer funds will be used.”
Yesterday, the White House released a partial list of contributors, and it reads like a cross-section of America’s economic powerhouses. Most notably, cryptocurrency firms Coinbase, Ripple (XRP), and Tether (USDT) have joined dozens of corporations in financing the ballroom.
Adding further intrigue, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the billionaire twins who co-founded the crypto exchange Gemini, also appear among the listed donors.
Originally estimated at around US $200 million, the project’s cost has since climbed to between US $250 million and US $300 million as plans expanded in scope and scale. The ballroom is designed to accommodate up to 650 guests in its early concept, though more recent figures suggest a capacity closer to 900 to nearly 1,000 people for major events.
According to the White House, the motivation behind the project stems from long-standing limitations of the current event space. The East Room, the largest existing venue within the residence, holds only about 200 guests, forcing the administration to erect temporary tents on the South Lawn for state dinners and other large receptions.
The new ballroom, officials say, will eliminate that need while offering a permanent, state-of-the-art setting for diplomatic and ceremonial gatherings.
Beyond the blockchain, the donor roster includes some of the world’s largest technology and defense firms, Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, and HP Inc., reflecting what can be described as a deepening alignment between the Trump White House and tech firms.
Crypto Finds a Friend in the White House
Coinbase, led by CEO Brian Armstrong, has long been one of the most vocal champions for clearer cryptocurrency regulations in the United States, and it’s starting to see results under the Trump administration. Since returning to office in 2025, President Trump has rolled back several policies from the previous administration that had been seen as hostile to digital assets.
The SEC rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which restricted how banks could hold crypto, and also withdrew earlier warnings that discouraged the inclusion of cryptocurrencies in 401(k) retirement plans. In March, Trump signed an executive order creating the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, formalizing the government’s role in digital asset management.
Also, Congress passed the GENIUS Act, a legislation providing a regulatory framework for stablecoins, a move that directly benefits Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin issuer.
Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, met with President Trump at a blockchain policy summit in March, where they discussed innovation, cross-border payments, and the future of U.S. crypto regulation. Also, Mark Uyeda launched a “Crypto 2.0” task force headed by Commissioner Hester Peirce, with the goal of modernizing oversight and encouraging innovation.
In one of the clearest signs of the administration’s new direction, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) quietly withdrew or settled several lawsuits filed during the previous term, including its long-running cases against Ripple and Coinbase, both of which were formally dismissed earlier this year.
