Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov traveled to Washington, DC last weekend to attend a number of inauguration events, beginning with the Inaugural Crypto Ball on January 17. Hosted by BTC Inc and Stand With Crypto at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, the sold-out black-tie event was emceed by White House AI and crypto czar, former PayPal COO David Sacks, and featured musical performers including Snoop Dogg.
Amid the celebration of America’s first “crypto president,” Nazarov met with prominent industry figures including former MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor.
During the Inaugural Committee Candlelight Dinner, held at the National Building Museum on the eve of the inauguration, Nazarov spent time with Trump’s nominee for United States secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alongside Nathan Allman and Ian De Bode from Ondo Finance and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
“I can see a whole new path for the blockchain industry that simply did not exist a few months ago,” Nazarov wrote on X. “Exciting times ahead for our industry.”
During the post-inauguration Starlight Ball at Union Station, Nazarov socialized with the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, United States Representative Mike Haridopolos, prominent podcaster Lex Fridman, and the team from World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a new Trump-backed DeFi protocol that is adopting the Chainlink standard for onchain price data and cross-chain interoperability.
“We are entering an entirely different stage for our industry at this point, the stage where we become the way the world works,” Nazarov posted on X.
He elaborated on his conversations with cabinet members and other figures who will play a critical role in shaping the crypto industry’s legislative and regulatory landscape in the U.S.
“I think there’s a growing recognition that the industry is entering the next stage of its development and adoption, shifting from being seen as something negative to something important to the continued growth of the U.S. economy,” he told Chainlink Today.
“We’re at a turning point where the U.S. government is transitioning from being a net headwind or detractor to a net tailwind or accelerant for our industry.”
Nazarov also praised America’s focus on crypto as a national priority.
“It’s encouraging everyone to clearly define their views in a more productive way and to create plans that enable crypto adoption in new and exciting ways,” he said.
“Over the next four years, I think we’ll see the financial sector adopt the various smart contracts, and the Chainlink standards that power them, to make their financial products and the U.S. market even more reliable. From there, I expect that this technology will expand into other parts of the economy, like transportation, global trade, information systems, and identity systems.”