Trump set to raise millions from crypto and meme coin this month

Donald Trump at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tenn., in 2024.

President Donald Trump has two crypto-focused dinners on the calendar this month — one aimed at deep-pocketed political donors, the other at meme coin millionaires. Both are poised to help him rake in millions.

The first event, a $1.5 million-per-plate fundraiser set for Monday, is among the priciest political fundraisers in recent memory. The second, on May 22, offers access to Trump’s inner circle not for cash — but for holders of the $TRUMP token.

Hosted by MAGA Inc., the “Crypto & AI Innovators Dinner” on May 5 features special guest David Sacks — who has been helping to rewrite the country’s crypto and artificial intelligence rules.

The committee receiving the funds, MAGA Inc., is a super PAC that supports Trump. But given that the president is constitutionally barred from running for a third term, it’s unclear how the PAC plans to spend the millions of dollars it is raising this spring at a series of dinners.

The crypto community has cheered Sacks’ growing influence in Washington, crediting him and other Trump-aligned appointees with a sweeping policy shift that’s already delivered a spate of regulatory wins across multiple federal agencies — in what many industry executives are describing as a 180 pivot from President Joe Biden.

The second gala dinner will be held later this month at Trump National, the president’s private club in the Washington, D.C., area. The guest list will be decided by a blockchain-based contest run by the creators of the $TRUMP meme token. Instead of cash, entry is based on how many tokens a user holds, with the top 220 promised dinner with Trump himself. The contest runs through May 12.

The gala, which is black tie optional, offers a “VIP White House Tour” and special reception to the meme coin’s 25-biggest holders. The website hosts an active leaderboard displaying the usernames of the coin’s top buyers.

Accountable.US, a center-left watchdog group that investigates corporate and political influence, described the leaderboard contest as “the most nakedly corrupt self-enrichment scheme in U.S. presidential history,” warning it opens the door for wealthy donors — including potentially foreign actors — to buy access to the president, while personally enriching the Trump family.

Because crypto wallets are pseudonymous, unless a holder has publicly disclosed their wallet address, it is difficult to independently confirm the identities of the top token holders currently leading the contest.

In January, for example, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun upped his token stake in another Trump-related crypto project. The Tron blockchain founder disclosed that he holds $75 million worth of World Liberty Financial’s token. A court filing the following month showed that Sun and the Securities and Exchange Commission were exploring a resolution to the regulator’s civil fraud case against the crypto entrepreneur.

The fine print of the $TRUMP contest does not guarantee access to the president.

According to the site’s terms and conditions, Trump may not be able to attend and the event can be canceled “for any reason.” In that case, they’ll get a Trump NFT instead.

Still, the contest has supercharged demand for the coin — and lined the pockets of its creators. The $TRUMP token surged more than 50% after the gala was announced, boosting the paper value of wallets controlled by insiders and early backers.

Roughly 80% of the $TRUMP token supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliates, according to the project’s website.

Since the token launched in January, trading activity has generated more than $324 million in trading fees for insiders, Chainalysis found. These fees are generated through the token’s built-in mechanism that routes a percentage of each trade to wallets controlled by the project — wallets that, according to the website, are linked to the coin’s creators.

Insiders have agreed, however, to delay cashing out their share of tokens for at least another 90 days, according to the project’s public disclosures.