President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency meme coin surged on Wednesday after a post on a website promoting it announced that the leading holders would get access to a private dinner with the president next month.
The $TRUMP meme coin rose more than 60% on Wednesday after the post announced “the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world,” promising the top 220 buyers a private gala dinner with the president on May 22 at Trump National Golf Club in Washington, D.C.
Additionally, the top 25 holders would get “an ultra exclusive private VIP reception with the President” as well as a “Special Tour,” the announcement said.
To be eligible, attendees must be in the top 220 average $TRUMP holders from April 23 to May 12; must pass a background check; can’t be from a country on a KYC anti-money laundering watch list; and cannot bring a guest.
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The terms of the $TRUMP dinner offer state that “President Trump may not be able to attend” but that winners would receive a limited-edition TRUMP non-fungible token (NFT) “in lieu thereof.”
The website promotion of the gala dinner with the president for the biggest holders of the coin is the latest in a series of crypto-related ventures that Trump and his family have undertaken over the last year.
Those crypto projects include the new crypto exchange World Liberty Financial, while the Trump Media & Technology Group, which the president has a $3 billion stake in, has also pivoted to crypto finance.
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Trump campaigned on governing as a “crypto president” and making the U.S. the “bitcoin superpower of the world.” Since taking office, his administration has sought to reshape the regulatory regimes that have oversight over the emerging industry.
Critics have raised concerns that the president’s connection with those various cryptocurrency ventures could open the door to conflicts of interest and influence peddling.
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Tony Carrk, the executive director of Accountable.US, a government ethics watchdog group, said of the announcement that there “has never been a clearer case of a President using their office to put money in their pocket, or a greater potential for special interests to buy an administration’s favor that could threaten the public interest.”
Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, told Reuters: “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”
The $TRUMP coin, which was launched prior to the president’s inauguration on Jan. 20, rose as high as $74.59 before falling to a low of $7.14 on April 7. It rose above $14 during this week’s surge and has since pared some of those gains, trading around $12.24 as of noon on Thursday. Crypto analytics firm Chainalysis found that, as of March 12, the coin had generated at least $350 million in fees for entities connected to the president.
As recently as last week, crypto watchers were expecting the $TRUMP coin to collapse as 40 million new tokens were set to unlock. However, the meme coin’s account said Wednesday that the unlock would be delayed for 90 more days.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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