Despite repeated claims from the White House that President Donald Trump’s Thursday night gala for the top holders of his cryptocurrency meme coin had nothing to do with his official duties, several of those investors visited the White House Friday afternoon for what they described as a special VIP event, the attendees told ABC News.
Sangrok Oh, a Korean crypto investor and entrepreneur, told ABC News on Friday that he and other top investors had been invited to tour the White House Friday afternoon, though it was not clear to him whether Trump himself would meet them.
“So, we’re going to visit and tour the White House [and] at the same time talk about crypto industries and the future of crypto,” Oh said.
Thursday night’s black tie event, held at Trump’s Washington-area golf club, was attended by around 200 cryptocurrency traders, including many from overseas, who gained admission through a contest that awarded invitations to the top investors in Trump’s meme coin — with at least some of the funds flowing directly into the Trump family’s coffers.
Critics have blasted the gala as a “pay for play” event in which investors who poured millions into Trump’s crypto coin got special access to the president.
News that top $TRUMP coin investors visited the White House appeared to contradict White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s assertion Thursday that the president was attending the crypto gala in a personal capacity, and that since the dinner did not take place at the White House, it was separate from his official duties.
“The president is attending [the dinner] in his personal time,” Leavitt said Thursday. “It is not a White House dinner. It’s not taking place here at the White House.”
The White House did not immediately respond on Friday to a request for comment from ABC News.
Cherry Hsu, an executive at MemeCore, a Singapore-based blockchain startup, said the firm’s founder, known publicly as “Ice,” had also been invited to the White House on Friday afternoon. MemeCore, according to the contest leaderboard, finished second in the competition with $TRUMP coin holdings in excess of $1 million.
And late Friday, Justin Sun, a Chinese crupto mogul and the top investor in Trump’s meme coin, posted a highly produced video of his White House tour, writing on X, “Was an honor to be invited to tour the @WhiteHouse. Such a privilege to see it in person.”
In addition to his multimillion-dollar investment in the $TRUMP coin, Sun has also invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial, another Trump-backed crypto venture. One month after that investment, SEC lawyers under the Trump administration moved to halt an alleged fraud case against Sun.
The Trump meme coin’s website at one point earlier this month advertised a “Special VIP White House tour” for the top 25 meme coin holders as part of the contest — but as of last week, the site said only that a “Special VIP tour” would be arranged, without mentioning the White House.
The site also included a disclaimer saying the tour was being arranged by the Fight Fight Fight LLC, and that the president himself would be appearing as a “guest.”
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