Bosses and titans of the cryptocurrency industry who invested tens of millions in the US elections in November have already made billions of dollars.
Top executives of cryptocurrency companies have seen enormous wealth gains as a result of the election results, according to a CoinDesk investigation. For example, following the election on November 5, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong made a windfall from the sale of his firm stock.
Armstrong has made an additional $129 million from the sale of his stocks alone, while Coinbase’s market value has increased by $21 billion. Additionally, since election day, his ownership of Coinbase has increased by almost $2 billion, reaching a current value of $6.4 billion.
Before the election, Coinbase first declared that it would donate $25 million to the super political action group Fairshake. According to the report, Ripple and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) matched the $74 million that Coinbase and Armstrong contributed.
According to a recent SEC filing, he still holds 10% of Coinbase and around 24 million shares in his trust, according to the “Armstrong Plan.”
Before the election, Armstrong explained that his stock transactions were part of a diversification strategy that required him to keep the majority of his holdings in a post on X and invest in moonshots.
After the election, Ripple, a16z Witness Gains
Additionally, after the election, Ripple’s native cryptocurrency, XRP, soared from $0.50 to $2.32, resulting in significant gains for the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse.
CoinMarketCap statistics show that during the last 30 days, XRP has gained 54.7%. As a result, its market capitalization has risen to the third position among digital assets.
Since Trump’s victory, the cryptocurrency market has increased by more than $1 trillion, Garlinghouse told CoinDesk.
A16z contributed $70 million, including funds set aside for the 2026 election cycle, while Ripple contributed $73 million.
Garlinghouse also holds a significant amount of hidden XRP tokens and more than 6% of Ripple, according to the CoinDesk report. He is included on the list of the other top billionaires in the United States.
According to Garlinghouse, the election has caused its XRP holdings to climb by more than three times since the token’s price spike. The CEO’s personal fortune consequently experienced a significant increase.
However, a16z’s Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz owned a large number of cryptocurrency startups. After the election, their assets have surpassed the funds they invested in U.S. politics.
