Several prominent figures in the cryptocurrency and venture capital sectors, including individuals with a history of supporting the Democratic party, have shown their backing for former President Donald Trump. David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, both notable venture capitalists, recently organized a successful fundraiser in San Francisco, generating $12 million for the Trump 47 Joint Fundraising Committee.

The event, which was completely sold out, featured tickets priced as high as $500,000 per couple. Among the attendees were Paul Grewal, the Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase, tech investor Shervin Pishevar, and the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, who are well-known for their legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg regarding the creation of Facebook.

“In 2016, the number of people from Silicon Valley I knew who supported Trump was a sample of one, which was Peter [Thiel],” Jacob Helberg, a senior adviser to Palantir, told Reuters. “Today I count them in the dozens, if not more than that. Over the course of the past six months, we’ve started to see the dam break,” he continued.

Helberg recently contributed $1 million to Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign following a history of backing Democratic candidates.

“The social cost of supporting Trump isn’t as great as it was,” Helberg said of Silicon Valley society, many members of which see that “Trump was right on a lot of make-or-break issues for America.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Palihapitiya, a former executive at Facebook who now works as a venture capitalist, has been a significant supporter of Democrats. He contributed $1.3 million to the party between 2011 and 2021 before shifting his fundraising efforts towards Trump. The San Francisco Chronicle also reported that Palihapitiya had previously supported Democrats by providing financial assistance and offering his home as a venue for fundraising events during Barack Obama’s campaigns and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

However, some Democrats have distanced themselves from Palihapitiya due to allegations of sexual misconduct, despite his previous contributions to the party as documented by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Additionally, Pishevar donated to Republican Senate candidates in Georgia in 2020.

“I just donated $300k to Trump,” Sequoia Capital partner and former Hillary Clinton donor Shaun Maguire wrote on X in May. “I know that I’ll lose friends for this. Some will refuse to do business with me. The media will probably demonize me, as they have so many others before me. But despite this, I still believe it’s the right thing to do,” he continued.

Coinbase’s leadership and the Winklevoss twins, who operate the cryptocurrency exchange platform Gemini, showed their support following Biden’s veto of a congressional attempt to restrict the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulation of digital currencies. San Francisco tech executive Trevor Traina mentioned to Reuters that this could have been the final domino. Both Sacks and Palihapitiya have substantial holdings in cryptocurrency. The crypto industry has significantly increased its efforts to influence policy, with super PACs associated with the industry raising $102 million during this cycle, as reported by Reuters. Fairshake, a major crypto-supported super PAC, spent over $10 million opposing Democratic California Rep. Katie Porter in the state’s Senate primary, according to campaign finance records.