A wild thing happened: people spent a whopping $140 million on a memecoin called TRUMP to get dinner with Donald Trump.
The Dinner Deal
The deal was simple: own enough TRUMP tokens by May 12th, and you’re invited to a fancy dinner at Trump National Golf Club. The top 220 holders got the invite. This announcement sent the TRUMP coin price soaring by 40%! Before the announcement, the coin had tanked by 88%, so this was a major turnaround.
People paid anywhere from $53,500 to a staggering $16.4 million for their dinner invite. The biggest spender? Someone using the name “Sun VIP,” but the anonymity of crypto makes it impossible to know who these big buyers really are.
Red Flags and Concerns
Inca Digital, a data analytics firm, looked into this and found that many of the buyers seem to be outside the US. This is worrying government officials and Democrats, who are concerned about the implications of buying access to the President.
There’s also a conflict of interest: the Trump Organization has a stake in the TRUMP coin. This means the Trump family could profit from the coin’s sales, making the whole situation ethically murky. The fact that the biggest buyers are anonymous adds to the concerns.
The Dinner and the Aftermath
The exclusive dinner is set for May 22nd. The top 25 TRUMP holders get a VIP reception and a tour. The coin itself is currently trading at $13.52, up 69% in the last month. This surge is partly due to a broader upswing in the crypto market, fueled by Bitcoin’s recent price increase, which some attribute to the President’s tariff policies.