Author: Weilin, PANews
On the evening of May 22, local time, US President Trump held a private dinner for top investors of his meme coin, $TRUMP, at the Trump National Golf Club outside Washington. As one of the most representative political tokens in the current crypto market, the $TRUMP dinner has attracted widespread attention in the crypto market.
Although the guest list is mostly anonymous, seven details of this crypto political dinner can still be pieced together from public information and on-site reports.
The dinner was held at Trump's Trump National Golf Club outside Washington, DC. According to the schedule released by the White House, the reception for the President's VIPs (the top 25 wallet address holders) will begin at 5:00 p.m. The main dinner will be from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Trump plans to leave the venue at 8:30 p.m. It is worth noting that the dinner is not open to the media, live broadcasting or carrying video recording equipment is prohibited, and mobile phones are allowed to maintain a high degree of privacy.
According to NBC News, citing data from blockchain analysis company Nansen, the 220 invited guests at the dinner invested a total of $394 million in $TRUMP tokens, with an average expenditure of about $1.78 million per person. The identities of most of these investors are not public, but some holders choose to reveal themselves. Tron founder Justin Sun holds more than 1.43 million Trump coins, making him the largest holder. In addition, Ronin Network co-founder Jihoz.ron, Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu, BitMart CEO Sheldon Xia and others also posted on social media about their attendance at the banquet.
It is worth noting that according to Bloomberg, Christensen and four friends adopted the strategy of buying and shorting the same number of Trump Meme coins. After the list of dinner invitees was announced, they immediately sold the Trump tokens they held and closed their short positions. Their ticket costs remained at around US$1,200 per person.
According to The Guardian, 95 of the 220 TRUMP dinner attendees (about 43%) have suffered net losses totaling $8.95 million from buying TRUMP since the coin launched in January, based on their trading history and portfolios as of May 21. The contestant with the username "GAnt" appears to have lost the most. Despite ranking fourth on the leaderboard, the purchase of tokens led to a loss of $1.06 million. Similarly, user "Meow" lost $621,000 despite having obtained VIP status.
The known attendees of the dinner are:
Justin Sun: Founder of TRON, largest holder of $TRUMP
Kain Warwick: Founder of Synthetix, Australian crypto entrepreneur
Vincent Deriu, Advisor at Synthetix
Morten Christensen: Trader and 4 friends (each spent only $1,200)
Sheldon Xia: Founder of BitMart
"Ogle": World Liberty Financial consultant, pseudonym
MemeCore representative: A representative of a Singapore startup company, who is personally introduced as the second largest holder of $TRUMP
Vincent Liu, Chief Investment Officer, Kronos Research
Nikita Anufriev, Founder of the “Headliners” Podcast
Oh Sang-rok: Korean startup founder
Anonymous accounts include "Smooth Operator", "Booblino" and "GiantBabyCorn". In addition, Nick Pinto, 25, the marketing director of his family's law firm, told CNBC that he invested $500,000 in Trump's Meme Coin in order to get a seat at the dinner.
Meanwhile, the MemeCore representative may have attended the meeting in the following manner, but only he posted the photo, and the authenticity remains to be verified:
According to the $TRUMP official website, the top 25 investors in terms of coin holdings were invited to an exclusive reception before the dinner and were arranged to visit the White House. The treatment was also seen as a reward mechanism for "loyal big investors." However, there were also reports that the VIP White House tour was scheduled for the next morning.
Trump's speech seemed old-fashioned, calling the United States the "global crypto capital" and criticizing Biden for being "unfavorable to the crypto industry." The overall content of his speech was substantive and unoriginal. On May 23, Trump posted on his social platform in the morning: "The United States is leading the field of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and we will maintain this position!"
Tron founder Justin Sun publicly stated that he is the largest holder of $TRUMP and attended the dinner. He had previously invested $75 million in Trump-related crypto company World Liberty Financial.
Justin Sun said, “Thank you very much for what the Trump administration has done for our industry. Not long ago, crypto people were constantly oppressed, and we couldn’t hold such a grand event in Washington to bring all practitioners together in the United States to build the crypto industry. This is the best thing I can think of. If I can come to the United States, then everyone can come.”
After the dinner, Justin Sun refuted the criticism that the Trump Meme coin was a bribery tool in an interview with the media. Justin Sun emphasized that President Trump's support for cryptocurrency is one of the wisest decisions he has ever made and marks a positive turning point for crypto innovation in the United States. Despite the protests at the dinner, Justin Sun remained firm that those skeptics were "short-sighted" and believed that Trump's embrace of cryptocurrency could trigger a new era of digital asset innovation in the United States. "All the critics should really pay attention to this field," Justin Sun said. "Positive changes are happening in this industry."
“I totally think MemeCoin has value,” he added. “It’s like running a business, some succeed and some fail — that’s the spirit of entrepreneurship.”
According to photos posted on social media by several guests, the dinner menu included garden lettuce salad, a choice of filet mignon or pan-fried flounder, served with garlic mashed potatoes and assorted vegetables, and dessert was molten chocolate cake.
According to Bloomberg, the dinner was decorated in Trump's personal brand style, with a "Fight Fight Fight" sign on the table and a gift bag containing a black hat and commemorative plaque with the same slogan. The slogan has appeared frequently in Trump's campaign rallies and social media recently. There was also a signature board printed with the top 220 holders.
Although the dinner was held in a heavily guarded golf club, it did not stop the gathering of protesters. A group of demonstrators gathered outside the event, condemning the event as "corruption incarnate." Some organizers accused the $TRUMP token of being essentially a "disguised bribe" in exchange for investment in political contacts.
Meanwhile, Democrats have strongly criticized Trump's cryptocurrency and condemned the dinner, with Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal likening the event to "putting a 'For Sale' sign on the White House," calling it an "auction of the president's access." Blumenthal raised the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the president for foreign gifts or payments he may have accepted through the event. Some Republicans have also expressed concerns, including Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, who said earlier this month that the dinner "made her feel uneasy," adding that while memecoins are legal, "what we need is a regulatory framework that makes this clearer to avoid this 'Wild West' situation."