As of Friday morning, the value of President Donald Trump’s meme coin dropped 16%. This was just hours after he held a black-tie dinner at his Virginia golf club for the token’s biggest buyers, who paid a total of $148 million for the chance to be there.
“The most exclusive invitation in the world” was what it was called.
Crypto influencers, industry executives like Sandy Carter of Unstoppable Domains, and former NBA star Lamar Odom were among the 220 people who attended. Odom used the event to call Trump “the greatest president” and push his own token, $ODOM.
The top 25 wallets were given a private welcome and tour. Some people, like Nicholas Pinto, 25, whose dad drove him to the event in his Lamborghini, were disappointed and still hungry when they left.
He said, “The food was awful.” “Water and Trump’s wine were the only drinks they were given.” I didn’t drink, so I just had water. My glass was only filled once.
Pinto said that Trump was only there for a short time. He said, “He didn’t talk to any of the 220 guests—maybe the top 25.”
It took 23 minutes for the president to be there all together, Pinto said. Trump gave a short speech going over old crypto talking points. He then left in a plane without taking any questions or pictures with the winners of his meme coin contest, he said.
Pinto said that security wasn’t tight and phones weren’t locked in RFID bags.
Pinto also said, “Once Trump left, they didn’t really worry about anything else.”
The crowd’s wealth was clear to see.
Pinto said, “Richard Mille watches weren’t even hard to find.” They were on at least 16 people I saw. That only happens at fancy restaurants in Miami or Dubai.
He said, “Lots of people didn’t even hold the coin anymore.” The mood wasn’t as lively as he thought it would be. During dinner, they looked at their phones to see if the price had changed.
CNBC has asked Trump’s staff for their thoughts on the dinner and the people who were there.
Protests
Lawyers and government officials were alarmed by what they saw at the dinner.
Justin Sun, a crypto billionaire born in China, owned the most tokens. He is currently facing fraud charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which were recently put on hold because of “the public interest.”
There are more than $22 million in Sun’s $TRUMP token, and there are another $75 million in Sun’s WNLF token.
Sun wrote on Friday, “As the owner of $0.TRUMP and a proud supporter of President Trump, it was an honor to attend the Trump Gala Dinner.” “Thank you, @POTUS, for always standing with our business!”
NBC News says that there were about 100 protesters outside the gates of Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia. They were joined by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who backed a new End Crypto Corruption Act with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
You can read “Trump is a traitor” and “Crypto Corruption” on the signs.
Keys on Capitol Hill
The work of the Trump family in the memecoin space makes my job in Congress harder, Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., told CNBC on Friday.
The gala was “a distraction from the good work we need to do,” said Hill, who is in charge of talks on the GENIUS Act, a bipartisan bill to regulate stablecoins.
The GENIUS Act is now in danger.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., recently added a controversial rider to the bill that would limit credit card late fees. This is seen as a poison pill that could turn banking friends against the bill and keep it from being passed in its entirety.
A group of Senate Democrats said Thursday night, while the meme coin contest dinner was going on, they would be pushing for a new rule that would stop presidents and other high-level officials from making money off of crypto businesses while they are in office. This is a direct challenge to the Trump-linked stablecoin USD1, which came out in the spring.
More and more people in Washington are worried that political fights over Trump’s crypto projects could kill the stablecoin bill completely. That is a much bigger risk.
The Wall Street Journal says that major banks like JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citi are in early stages of talks to create a single digital dollar to fight with Tether, a stablecoin controlled by a foreign country that currently has over 60% of the global market.
Those plans depend on how the law is clear.
If the GENIUS Act is put on hold, the U.S. might miss its chance to catch up in the race for digital payments around the world.
At times, the White House has tried to separate Trump the person and Trump the investor.
“The president is going to it on his own time.” When asked about who was attending, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “It’s not a White House dinner.”
The government refused to give out a list of guests. But blockchain data and a bunch of different guest shots tell only part of the story.
According to a report by Bloomberg News, all but six of the top 25 wallets used foreign platforms, which are supposed to be closed to U.S. users. These offshore sites were linked to more than half of the top 220 wallets.
Freight Technologies, a penny stock on the Nasdaq, told the SEC in a statement that it spent $2 million on Trump’s token to push U.S.-Mexico trade policy. It didn’t make it to the dinner—it came in 250th.
The $TRUMP coin has made more than $324 million in trade fees since its launch in January. The project’s website says that the Trump Organization and its affiliates hold about 80% of the $TRUMP token supply.
In two sales, WLFI, which is like Trump’s coin, raised $550 million.
David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, was still optimistic about the law because it had “significant bipartisan support.”
“We already have over $200 billion in stablecoins; it’s just not regulated,” Sacks said on Wednesday on “Closing Bell Overtime” on CNBC. “If we make this clear from a legal standpoint, I believe we could create demand for trillions of dollars in Treasurys almost overnight, very quickly.”
“We now have every reason to believe that it will pass,” Sacks said. However, he didn’t answer a question about Democrats’ worries that there aren’t enough checks and balances in place to keep the president and his family from making money off of the law.
A disclosure file says that Sacks sold $200 million worth of crypto-related holdings before taking the job at the White House. Trump and his family, on the other hand, have been focusing on building a crypto empire.
The Trump family gives money to World Liberty Financial, which is the company behind the USD1 stablecoin. The USD1 stablecoin is backed by Treasury bills and dollar accounts.
The MGX investment fund in Abu Dhabi recently promised $2 billion in USD to Binance, which is the biggest digital asset market in the world. It’s the biggest bet the company has ever made in crypto.
