Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Solar participates in a session throughout the Token 2049 crypto convention in Dubai on Might 1, 2025. Solar is a prime investor in Trump’s meme coin and says he plans to attend an unique dinner with the president.
Giuseppe Cacace/AFP through Getty Pictures
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Giuseppe Cacace/AFP through Getty Pictures
President Trump is internet hosting an unique dinner tonight at his Trump Nationwide Golf Membership close to Washington, D.C., with a novel visitor listing: 220 of the biggest traders in his $TRUMP meme coin, whose present or earlier holdings of the cryptocurrency earned them a seat on the desk.
It is an occasion the place the murky world of cryptocurrencies collides with questions of presidential ethics.
Listed below are three key issues to know in regards to the president’s meme coin, Thursday’s dinner and what all of it may imply.
What’s $TRUMP?
Days earlier than the inauguration, the president launched $TRUMPwhich surged to a $27 billion market cap inside hours – valuing the president’s private stake at greater than $20 billion. Its worth peaked at greater than $74 earlier than plummeting. Since hitting a low in April, it has recovered a few of its losses, making again a lot of it within the final month because the $TRUMP dinner was hyped.
In a Bitcoin World editorial in regards to the meme coin dinner, the publication stated that the timing of the most recent spike means that “entry to a high-profiled political determine and occasion acted as a robust catalyst.”
Meme cash are cryptocurrencies impressed by web memes or viral tendencies — or on this case, a U.S. president. They’re usually created for leisure or speculative functions and are pushed principally by hype. As hypothesis, they have a tendency to complement early traders who’re in a position to dump their cash earlier than their worth crashes.
Like Bitcoin, meme cash, generally referred to as meme tokens, use blockchain know-how, however normally lack a transparent use case and underlying worth.
“Meme cash aren’t investments. I would not even name them speculative. They’re riskier than the canine monitor,” in keeping with Michael Lee, the founding father of Michael Lee Technique, a wealth planning and funding administration agency.
Lee describes himself as “a full red-blooded Trump supporter” and calls the unique cryptocurrency Bitcoin “digital gold.” However as an investor, he says he would not contact $TRUMP.
“This is not even casino-level threat,” he stated. “In a on line casino, no less than there’s odds.”
CIC Digital LLC, an affiliate of The Trump Group, and Combat Combat Combat LLC collectively personal about 80% of the full provide of 1 billion $TRUMP tokens, in keeping with GetTrumpMemes.comthe official web site.
Folks stroll previous a cryptocurrency trade workplace with a display that includes President Donald Trump holding cryptocurrency cash in Hong Kong on March 12, 2025.
Mladen Antonov/AFP through Getty Pictures
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Mladen Antonov/AFP through Getty Pictures
Who’s attending the $TRUMP dinner?
Of the 220 traders planning to attend, all however a only a few have solely been recognized by their “crypto pockets handle” on-line handles.
“There’s been a variety of hypothesis about who may maintain them and who won’t,” Politico reporter Declan Harty advised NPR not too long ago. “However from these people who’re speaking about their plans to attend the dinner, they’re principally cryptocurrency believers and hoping to essentially get an viewers with the president.”
Like Chinese language-born crypto-investor Justin Solar, the founding father of the blockchain-based working platform TRON. Solar introduced on X that he’s the highest holder of $TRUMP and can subsequently be on the listing for the dinner and the non-public White Home tour.
“Honored to help @POTUS and grateful for the invitation from @GetTrumpMemes to attend President Trump’s Gala Dinner as his TOP fan!” he wrote.
In 2023, Solar was charged by the Securities and Change Fee for the unregistered sale of his cryptocurrencies, for artificially inflating their buying and selling quantity, in addition to concealing funds to superstar endorsers to advertise them, in keeping with the SEC. As of February, the SEC case was nonetheless pending, in keeping with Reuters.
However Solar is probably finest recognized to most people for an additional buy he made final 12 months at a New York public sale. The tech mogul purchased a $6.2 million banana caught to a wall with duct tape — a conceptual work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. Solar subsequently ate the banana, bragging about it on social media.
After Solar, MemeCore, a Singapore-based crypto community, ranks second. Like Solar, MemeCore made no secret of its quest for the No. 1 slot, posting on X earlier this month that “We’re not simply aiming for #1 within the $TRUMP leaderboard – we’re right here to beat the complete meme area.”
Wintermute, a London-based crypto market-making agency, reportedly is available in at #3, in keeping with BitCoin World. NPR reached out to the corporate to substantiate its holdings, however didn’t obtain an instantaneous reply.
What are the moral implications?
Norm Eisen is a former ambassador who was an ethics advisor to former President Barack Obama and now serves as the manager chair of Democracy Defenders Motion.
Citing the Emoluments Clause, the constitutional provision that bars federal officers from accepting presents, funds, or different advantages from overseas governments with out congressional consent, Eisen describes the dinner as “probably the most profound ethics and constitutional emoluments violations within the historical past of our presidency.”
“The existence of this digital foreign money is a unadorned try to take advantage of (Trump’s) prior and present presidencies,” Eisen stated.
“Foreigners and overseas governments are going to benefit from that state of affairs to place cash in — anticipating issues in return,” he predicted.
Creating such a quid professional quo may have vital nationwide safety implications, with such affect probably resulting in overseas coverage choice that favor different nations over the U.S. Notably, overseas entities are prohibited from donating to political campaigns or influencing choice making of candidates — all to keep away from overseas interference in U.S. affairs.
In an emailed assertion to NPR, White Home deputy press secretary Anna Kelly stated: “The president is working to safe GOOD offers for the American individuals, not for himself.”
“President Trump solely acts in the most effective pursuits of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this workplace, regardless of years of lies and false accusations in opposition to him and his companies from the faux information media,” she stated.
Talking on situation of anonymity, a White Home official stated, “the meme coin has nothing to do with the White Home.”
Lee, the funding supervisor, says he does not assume the meme tokens or the dinner current a very thorny moral dilemma. “I do not know the way you’d get near Trump by shopping for his meme coin,” he says. “If you happen to’re an individual of means, you may get near any politician, proper?”
However even some Republican lawmakers have expressed issues. Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a staunch Trump supporter, stated that the state of affairs “provides me pause,” whereas Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, talking to NBCstated “I do not assume it will be applicable for me to cost individuals to come back into the Capitol and take a tour.”
Eisen believes throughout Obama’s presidency, it will have been inconceivable for such an occasion to happen.
“Conversely, if one in all us had instructed it, he would have thrown us out of the Oval Workplace,” he stated.
However he does imagine that Trump’s problem to the Emoluments Clause of the Structure will probably be challenged within the courts. In any other case, Eisen says, “if this goes unchecked, it can grasp a ‘on the market’ signal on the White Home.”
