People spent an estimated $148 million on Donald Trump’s meme coin in a contest to dine with the president at his private golf club in Sterling, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., later this month.
Reuters reports that Trump will host the top 220 holders of his cryptocurrency at a gala dinner on May 22, which he marketed as the “most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world.” The top 25 buyers will get an “ultra-exclusive private VIP reception” and “Special VIP Tour” with the president.
The contest to dine with the president resulted in the top 220 holdings amounting to $147,586,796.41. The holders of Trump’s coin include companies based in places such as Singapore and Hong Kong.
The top wallet, holding close to $18.5 million of coin, is called “SUN” and is held by a Seychelles-based crypto exchange known as HTX. Justin Sun, a Chinese national accused of fraud known for spending $6.2 million on a banana and then eating it, is on HTX’s board and already has a financial relationship with Trump.
Sun said he invested $75 million into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, after the 2024 election. He was then fortunate enough to have Securities and Exchange Commission charges dropped against him in February.
Not all have been so lucky. Trump announced the $TRUMP coin on the weekend of his inauguration in January, and since then, 592,962 cryptocurrency wallets, most of its investors, have lost a combined $3.9 billion.
It’s quite evident that Trump’s meme coin has been a vessel for corruption for the president, allowing millions of dollars in foreign money to flow freely into his and his family’s pockets. Every time the president makes a policy decision or even speaks about cryptocurrency, it causes the value of his coin to go up. Trump is openly flaunting corruption as president, and only congressional Democrats are saying anything, with the little power they have.
“The Trump meme coin is the single most corrupt act ever committed by a president,” Senator Chris Murphy told Reuters in a statement on Friday. “Donald Trump is essentially posting his Venmo for any billionaire CEO or foreign oligarch to cash in some favors by secretly sending him millions of dollars.”
The post Here’s How Much Trump’s Shady Crypto Dinner Auction Raked In appeared first on New Republic.
