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August 20, 2025

Blog Post Campaign FinanceCryptocurrencyTrump 2.0

Oligarchs and the Trump Admin: John Wu

Since 2020, John Wu has served as president of the crypto company Ava Labs. On April 2, 2025, Ava Labs donated $1 million to MAGA Inc, President Trump’s Super PAC. According to the New York Times, the donation got Wu a spot at a fundraising event just two days later—a “candlelight dinner” featuring Trump as a guest speaker.

August 14, 2025

KJ Boyle

Blog Post Campaign FinanceCryptocurrencyFinancial RegulationFintech

Oligarchs and the Trump Admin: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are billionaires who made their initial fortune from a 2004 lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg, accusing him of stealing their idea in the creation of Facebook. The Winklevoss twins have since expanded their fortunes through an $11 million purchase of Bitcoin in 2013, founding the venture capital firm Winklevoss Capital, and founding cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. In June 2024, the Winklevoss’ each tweeted an endorsement of Trump’s candidacy and donated $1 million in bitcoin to his campaign.

November 14, 2022 | The Nation

Timi Iwayemi

Op-Ed Campaign FinanceClimate and EnvironmentCryptocurrencyFinancial Regulation

Money From Nothing: Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Shakedown

The rapid meltdown of FTX stands as one of the most gruesome chapters in the annals of investment fiascos: think of the false technological promises of Elizabeth Holmes’s Theranos grift combined with the evaporation of Bernie Madoff’s prestigious Ponzi fund. But the saga of FTX involves much more than either the vanity and hubris of Holmes’s fraud offensive or the deceptive practices of the Madoff scam. The rapid rise and fall of Bankman-Fried points up the delusional character of information-age capitalism; Far from standing as an outlying trend within the crypto investment world, Bankman-Fried’s scam was nestled at the very heart of its prevailing business model.