The flashy online announcement called it “the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World,” a chance to have “an intimate private dinner” with President Trump at his members-only golf club in Virginia, followed by a tour of the White House.
A seat would be reserved for each of the top 220 investors in $TRUMP, a cryptocurrency that President Trump launched on the eve of his inauguration.
In an astonishing escalation of the Trump family’s efforts to profit from cryptocurrencies, a website promoting Mr. Trump’s so-called memecoin announced on Wednesday that the coin’s largest buyers would be invited to meet with him. The effort was, in effect, an offer of access to the White House in exchange for an investment in one of Mr. Trump’s crypto ventures.
“Have Dinner with President Trump and the $TRUMP Community!” the invitation said. “Let the President know how many $TRUMP coins YOU own!”
For months, Mr. Trump’s forays into the crypto industry have created ethical conflicts with little precedent in presidential history. As he markets digital currencies to the public, Mr. Trump has also appointed regulators who are scaling back crypto enforcement and called for legislation that would boost the industry’s prospects in the United States.
As news of the dinner invitation spread on social media, the memecoin’s price surged more than 60 percent, suggesting that investors were rushing to accumulate the coin to qualify for a seat at the dinner.
“This is really incredible,” said Corey Frayer, who oversaw crypto policy for the Securities and Exchange Commission during the Biden administration. “They are making the pay-to-play deal explicit.”
A business entity linked to Mr. Trump owns a large tranche of the coins, meaning that the president personally profits every time the price increases, at least on paper. Mr. Trump and his business partners also collect fees when the coins are traded, a windfall that amounted to nearly $100 million in the weeks after the coin debuted in January.
Victoria Haneman, a law professor at Creighton University, said the offering raised concerns about the ways Mr. Trump and his businesses “may maneuver to profit off the presidency.”
Early this year, the S.E.C. issued official guidance saying that memecoins, a type of cryptocurrency based on an online joke or celebrity mascot, would not be subject to oversight by the agency. Crypto skeptics criticized the policy as a risky move that could open the door to rampant abuse and fraud by memecoin promoters.
As president, Mr. Trump has broad immunity from laws governing conflicts of interest — a loophole he has pointed out in the past. Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Eric Trump, who helps run the Trump Organization, which joined to sponsor the $Trump coin, declined to comment.
Once a cryptocurrency skeptic, Mr. Trump embraced digital currencies on the campaign trail last year, as crypto companies poured tens of millions of dollars into the 2024 election.
In the fall, Mr. Trump and his sons, Donald Jr., Eric and Barron, said they were starting a company, World Liberty Financial, that offered its own digital currency, WLFI. So far, $550 million of those coins have been sold, according to the company.
Not long after, Mr. Trump’s social media firm, Trump Media & Technology Group, moved to offer crypto-related financial products to amateur investors and announced a partnership with Crypto.com, a digital trading platform.
But Mr. Trump’s memecoin venture has generated the most attention and buzz.
Just three days before the inauguration, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media site, that he was selling the coin. Sales of $TRUMP immediately spiked, making the president-elect a crypto billionaire on paper.
Memecoins tend to rise and fall quickly, and $TRUMP’s price soon cratered. Traders who had accumulated the coin suffered more than $2 billion in cumulative losses.
The dinner announcement appeared calculated to ignite more interest in the coins.
When $TRUMP went on sale in January, a large stash of the coins were allocated to the project’s backers. But rules built into the offering prevented those insiders from selling any of the coins until last week, raising fears that they would try to offload their holdings and cause $TRUMP’s price to drop further.
Instead, the price gradually climbed in the days before the invitation was released, and then surged as the announcement went live.
The memecoin’s website said that the dinner with Mr. Trump was scheduled to take place on May 22 at the Trump National Golf Club, and that the president would be discussing “the future of crypto.”
The top 25 buyers of $TRUMP would win access to a reception with Mr. Trump before the dinner.
“Most Exclusive Once in Lifetime Invitation,” the announcement said.
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