Story perspectives

Crypto-Backed $500K Trump Doral Statue Installed Amid Evangelical Approval Dip

5/10/2026

Summary

Story summary

Sculptor Alan Cottrill installed the 22-foot gold-leaf statue at Trump National Doral after receiving the full $500,000 payment in April 2026.
A group of cryptocurrency investors financed the statue.
A payment dispute delayed the statue’s installation for more than a year.
White evangelical approval of U.S. President Donald Trump fell from 69% in a January Pew poll to 64% in a later NPR/PBS/Marist poll.

History

Historical Context

Early cryptographic ideas from David Chaum and an NSA paper set groundwork for Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2009 launch of Bitcoin, the first open-source cryptocurrency. Venture-capital backing grew, exemplified by Coinbase’s $75 million Series C in 2015, and sovereign adoption followed, with El Salvador legalising Bitcoin in 2021. In 2026 crypto investors funded Alan Cottrill’s $500,000 gold-leaf statue at Trump National Doral, showing digital finance’s role in political art patronage.

1 of 2

Story summary

Sculptor Alan Cottrill installed the 22-foot gold-leaf statue at Trump National Doral after receiving the full $500,000 payment in April 2026.
A group of cryptocurrency investors financed the statue.
A payment dispute delayed the statue’s installation for more than a year.
White evangelical approval of U.S. President Donald Trump fell from 69% in a January Pew poll to 64% in a later NPR/PBS/Marist poll.

1 / 2