Ondo Finance, a firm involved in efforts to launch crypto-linked exchange-traded funds, donated $1 million on April 22 to support Donald Trump's 2024 campaign or inauguration fund. Following the generous donation, the SEC’s newly-formed crypto task force met on April 24. This meeting was just a continuing step in their greater endeavor to reach out to the industry. The White House task force released an alert that day.
The meeting took place on the heels of former SEC chair Gary Gensler’s ouster. This comes on the heels of the approval of crypto exchange-traded funds earlier in 2024.
The SEC task force’s most recent outreach to the crypto industry consists of a surprisingly blatant disclosed notice – dated April 24. The notice mentioned:
"issuing and selling wrapped, tokenized versions of publicly traded US securities" - www.sec.gov
Ondo Finance counts Truth Social, the social media platform of the former US President, among its backers. Its donation highlights the growing relationship between the crypto industry and politics. Their upcoming meeting with the SEC enforcement task force makes this trend more pronounced still.
The approval of crypto exchange-traded funds in 2024 has led to a significant increase in demand for digital asset custody within the United States. Financial institutions have certainly noticed this increase in demand, too.
Most interestingly, all three exchanges either made contributions to or had senior executives who contributed to Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign or inauguration fund. The SEC crypto task force initiative appears to be an attempt to actively engage with the industry.
