Original author: David Yaffe-Bellany, Matthew Goldstein, Eric Lipton
Compiled and edited by: BitpushNews
The Trump family will offer private dinners to top investors in its meme coin TRUMP. This invitation has driven TRUMPs short-term surge and is the familys latest attempt to profit from the crypto industry.
The glittering online announcement billed it as the most exclusive invitation in the world - a rare chance to have a private dinner with Trump at his members-only golf club in Virginia, followed by a tour of the White House.
Each seat will be reserved for the top 220 investors in terms of holdings of TRUMP Coin, the cryptocurrency launched by the Trump family on the eve of his inauguration.
On Wednesday, the website promoting the so-called presidential meme coin announced that buyers with the largest holdings would receive a meeting with the president, essentially offering White House access as a bargaining chip in exchange for investment in Trumps crypto project.
“Dinner with President Trump and the TRUMP community!” the invitation reads. “Let the President know how many TRUMP coins you hold!”
For months, Trumps foray into cryptocurrencies has sparked unprecedented ethical controversy in U.S. presidential history. While promoting digital currencies to the public, Trump has appointed regulators who have cut crypto enforcement and called for legislation to boost the industry in the United States.
As news of the dinner spread across social media, the price of the meme coin soared by more than 60%, and investors are frantically taking advantage of this news to profit.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Corey Freire, who is in charge of SEC crypto policy during the Biden administration. “They put the ‘power-for-money transaction’ directly on the table.”
Business entities associated with Trump hold a large number of the tokens, which means that Trump himself can directly profit from every price increase (at least on paper). Trump and his business partners can also extract transaction fees from token transactions, with revenues of nearly $100 million in the early days of the launch in January alone.
Creighton University law professor Victoria Honeyman noted that such operations raise concerns that Trump and his business empire may be exploiting the power of the presidency for personal gain.
The Trump familys crypto businesses may benefit from industry-backed crypto legislation moving forward in Congress, but they also complicate the political landscape around the issue. Trumps relationship with cryptocurrencies has angered pro-industry Democrats, whose support is needed for legislation to pass the Senate. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Frank Hill (R-Arkansas), who has pushed for new rules favorable to cryptocurrencies for years, said last month that his familys crypto businesses complicate his job in Congress.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued official guidance stating that meme coins based on online jokes or celebrity images will not be regulated by the agency. Crypto skeptics criticized this policy for potentially encouraging fraudulent behavior by meme coin promoters.
As president, Trump enjoys broad immunity from conflict of interest regulations, a loophole he has cited in the past. A White House representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Eric Trump, who helps run the Trump Organization, the sponsor of TRUMP coin, declined to comment.
Trump, once skeptical of crypto, changed his stance during last years campaign, when crypto companies were spending tens of millions of dollars to influence the 2024 election.
Last fall, Trump and his sons Donald Jr., Eric and Barron announced the establishment of World Liberty Financial to issue a digital currency called WLFI. According to the company, 550 million of the tokens have been sold so far.
Shortly thereafter, Trumps social media company Trump Media Technology Group began offering crypto financial products to retail investors and announced a partnership with trading platform Crypto.com.
But the most popular project is Trumps meme coin project.
Three days before the inauguration, Trump announced the sale of the token on his social platform Truth Social. TRUMP sales surged instantly, making the president-elect a crypto billionaire on paper.
Meme coins usually rise and fall sharply, and the price of TRUMP collapsed quickly. The cumulative losses of holders exceeded US$2 billion.
The dinner announcement was clearly intended to reignite market enthusiasm.
When Trump was launched in January, a large number of tokens were distributed to project supporters. However, the issuance rules restricted these insiders from selling until last week, raising concerns in the market that their selling would cause the price of the coin to fall further.
However, in the days before the invitation was released, the price of the currency had gradually recovered, and it soared rapidly after the announcement was released.
The official TRUMP website has set up a ranking of major coin holders, which is essentially an online game that allows buyers to track rankings in real time. The website states that from April 23 to May 12, the top 220 TRUMP holders by average holdings will be invited to the dinner. The top 25 buyers can also attend the presidential reception before the dinner and the VIP tour of the White House (the 25th on the list currently holds about 4,000 tokens, worth about $54,000).
“The more $TRUMP you hold — and the longer you hold it — the higher you rank,” the site emphasizes.
The website said the dinner with Trump is scheduled to take place at the Trump National Golf Club on May 22, calling it a once-in-a-lifetime, most exclusive invitation.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ethical implications of the dinner.
