Trump invites "pay-to-win players" to a private dinner? The "sky-high social game" behind TRUMP coin

Written by: David Yaffe-Bellany, Matthew Goldstein, Eric Lipton

Compiled and organized by: BitpushNews

The Trump family will offer a private dinner to the top investors of their meme coin TRUMP, an invitation that has propelled TRUMP to a short-term surge, marking the family's latest attempt to profit from the cryptocurrency industry.

This dazzling online announcement refers to it as the "most exclusive invitation in the world" — a rare opportunity to have a "private dinner" with Trump at his Virginia membership golf club, followed by a tour of the White House.

Each seat will be reserved for the top 220 investors holding TRUMP coins (the cryptocurrency launched by the Trump family on the eve of the inauguration).

On Wednesday local time, the website promoting the so-called "presidential meme coin" announced that the largest holder of the coin would have the opportunity to meet with the president. This move essentially uses access to the White House as leverage to encourage investment in Trump's crypto project.

"Dinner with President Trump and the TRUMP community!" the invitation read, "Let the President know how much TRUMP community dinner you hold! Let the President know how much TRUMP coin you hold!"

In recent months, Trump's involvement in the cryptocurrency sector has sparked rare ethical controversies in the history of U.S. presidents. While promoting digital currencies to the public, Trump appointed regulators to ease enforcement on cryptocurrencies and called for legislation to boost the industry's development in the United States.

As the news of the dinner spread on social media, the price of the meme coin surged over 60%, with investors frantically profiting from this news.

"This is simply unbelievable," said Corey Frayer, who was responsible for SEC cryptocurrency policy during the Biden administration. "They have put 'quid pro quo' right on the table."

Businesses associated with Trump hold a large amount of the token, meaning that Trump himself can directly profit from each price increase (at least on paper). Trump and his business partners can also extract transaction fees from the token trades, with earnings close to 100 million dollars in just the initial month after its launch in January.

Victoria Haneman, a law professor at Creighton University, pointed out that this operation raises concerns that Trump and his business empire "may profit from presidential powers."

The Trump family's crypto business may benefit from the pro-industry crypto legislation being pushed by Congress, but it also complicates the political landscape surrounding the issue. Trump's relationship with cryptocurrency has angered pro-industry Democrats, as the legislation requires their support to pass in the Senate. House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (Republican from Arkansas) has been advocating for new rules favorable to cryptocurrency for years. Last month, he stated that the family's cryptocurrency business has made his work in Congress "more complicated."

Earlier this year, the U.S. SEC issued official guidance stating that meme coins based on internet memes 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 exemptions under conflict of interest regulations, and he has previously mentioned this loophole. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comments. Eric Trump, who assists in operating the sponsor of TRUMP coin, the "Trump Organization," declined to comment.

Trump, who was once skeptical about cryptocurrency, changed his stance during last year's campaign—at that time, crypto companies were spending tens of millions of dollars to influence the 2024 election.

Last autumn, Trump announced the establishment of "World Liberty Financial" with his sons Donald Jr., Eric, and Barron, issuing a digital currency called WLFI. According to the company, 550 million of the tokens have been sold so far.

Soon after, Trump's social media company Trump Media & Technology Group began offering cryptocurrency financial products to retail investors and announced a partnership with the trading platform Crypto.com.

But the most关注的 is still Trump's meme coin project.

Three days before the inauguration ceremony, Trump announced the sale of the token on his social platform Truth Social. The sales of TRUMP instantly surged, making the incoming president a crypto billionaire on paper.

Meme coins often experience wild fluctuations, and TRUMP's price quickly crashed. Holders have accumulated losses exceeding $2 billion.

The announcement of this dinner is clearly aimed at reigniting market enthusiasm.

In January, when TRUMP was launched, a large number of tokens were allocated to project supporters. However, the issuance rules restricted these insiders from selling until last week, raising concerns in the market about further price declines due to their sell-off.

However, a few days before the invitation was released, the price of the currency had gradually rebounded, and after the announcement was made, it surged rapidly.

The TRUMP official website has established a leaderboard for large token holders, which is essentially an online game that allows buyers to track their rankings in real-time. The website states that from April 23 to May 12, the top 220 holders with the highest average token holdings will be invited to a banquet. The top 25 buyers will even have the opportunity to attend a presidential reception and a VIP tour of the White House before the dinner (currently, the 25th place holder has about 4,000 tokens, valued at approximately $54,000).

"The more $TRUMP you hold—and the longer you hold it—the higher your ranking will be," the website emphasizes.

The website states that the dinner with Trump is scheduled for May 22 at the Trump National Golf Club and calls it "the most exclusive invitation of a lifetime."

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the ethical implications of the dinner.