Hundreds of the top investors in President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency meme coin gathered Thursday for an exclusive black-tie dinner with the president — what some critics are condemning as a brazen pay-for-play event meant to enrich the most powerful man in the world.
Among those spotted arriving at the event were Lamar Odom of the NBA and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” fame, cryptocurrency mogul Justin Sun and Kendall Davis, an Austin-based cryptocurrency investor, who told ABC News that he “came here to advocate for things to be done right in the crypto space.”
Two hundred and twenty cryptocurrency traders, including many from overseas, pumped tens of millions of dollars into Trump’s meme coin to gain admission to the gala through a contest that awarded invitations to the top investors — with at least some of the funds flowing directly into the Trump family’s coffers.
Promoted on the coin’s website as the “most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world,” the glitzy affair at Trump’s private golf club in Northern Virginia Thursday night was headlined by the president himself.
Critics of the gala, including some Republican lawmakers and cryptocurrency industry advocates, have lambasted the arrangement as an opportunity for the president and his family to improperly benefit personally from his position of power.
Outside of the event, dozens of protesters — including Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. — were seen bearing signs that read, “America is not for sale,” “No King” and “Stop Trump’s Crypto Corruption,” and chanting slogans of a similar sentiment as attendees made their way into the venue.
“It definitely seems like Trump is selling access to the president through his meme coin, and that money is going directly to his pocket,” said Molly White, an engineer and crypto researcher who has closely followed Trump’s various crypto ventures. “[Trump] is really using cryptocurrency to boost his personal wealth in ways that he really had not previously done.”
Trump’s meme coin — a type of digital currency that’s often based on an internet meme — was launched in January, on the eve of his inauguration, and the coin’s value immediately soared past $75 per token. But the coin, known as $TRUMP, suffered a precipitous drop in the ensuing weeks, bottoming out in April at around $7.
That’s when the gala was announced, framed online as an “intimate private dinner” where top investors in $TRUMP would “hear first-hand President Trump talk about the future of crypto.” The top 25 investors, the advertisement said, would also receive a “special VIP tour” and an exclusive reception with the president before the dinner.
President Donald Trump speaks about the Golden Dome missile defense shield in the Oval Office of the White House, May 20, 2025, in Washington.
Chris Kleponis/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
By the following day, the value of the coin ballooned by more than 55%. It then proceeded to fluctuate as those looking to secure admission to the gala bought up the coin and others looking to profit off the hype proceeded to sell
As investors jockeyed for a spot on the venture’s online leaderboard, the top 220 collectively spent upwards of $140 million for a seat at the table on Thursday, according to an analysis by the data analytics firm Nansen.
Several investors said the opportunity to rub shoulders with the commander-in-chief — and, in some cases, promote their business before the most powerful man in the world — was worth the price of admission.
Cherry Hsu, an executive at a Singapore-based blockchain startup called MemeCore, said the company’s co-founder, known online as “Ice,” would attend the gala on the firm’s behalf after MemeCore finished second in the competition. Hsu told ABC News that “Ice” was eager to speak with Trump about “balancing regulation with decentralization” in cryptocurrencies, and that their major investment in Trump’s meme coin was directly tied to the opportunity to interact with the president.
“We want to sit next to Trump, if possible,” she said. “I think it will be interesting.”
Like “Ice,” most of the other gala attendees remain shrouded in mystery — their identities hidden behind three-or four-letter pseudonyms connected to their cryptocurrency wallets — and appear to be located outside the United States. At least 20 of the top 25 investors appear to be foreign-based, according to analysis from the left-leaning nonprofit research group Accountable.US.
Among those who attended are an Australian entrepreneur, a New York-based crypto enthusiast, and Justin Sun, a controversial Chinese crypto mogul who has brokered deep business ties with the Trump family. In addition to his multimillion-dollar investment in $TRUMP, Sun has also invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial, another Trump-backed crypto venture. One month after that investment, SEC lawyers under the Trump administration moved to halt an alleged fraud case against Sun.
On X, Sun wrote that he was “Honored to support @POTUS” and “excited to connect with everyone, talk crypto, and discuss the future of our industry” at the gala. Sun has not responded to inquiries from ABC News.
It remains unclear exactly how much Trump stands to profit from his meme coin. Data analysts suggest that the coin’s owners, which includes an LLC that has been owned wholly by Trump, have likely already made millions of dollars in transaction fees. One estimate using data from the analytics firm Flipside said Trump and his partners have made about $3 million in transaction fees.
And while the Trump family and his partners may have benefitted financially, most $TRUMP investors have lost out. According to CNBC’s reporting of blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis’ data, 58 wallets had made millions from their Trump coin investments as of May 6 — while roughly 764,000 crypto wallets had lost money.
Another analysis by Nansen suggests that more than 70% of the token holders have incurred losses totaling approximately $21 million since Trump announced the gala competition, including one unidentified investor who lost $2.5 million.
Once a crypto skeptic, Trump has in recent years fully embraced cryptocurrency both for his personal businesses and as a part of his administration’s policy platform, declaring himself the “Crypto President” and launching an overhaul of the U.S. regulatory and enforcement posture toward digital currencies.
“The entire crypto enforcement program at the Securities Exchange Commission has been absolutely demolished,” former SEC attorney John Reed Stark said on ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos earlier this month. “All the SEC investigations regarding crypto closed. All the SEC litigation involving crypto dismissed or paused.”
As his administration has worked to promote cryptocurrencies, including the announcement of a national cryptocurrency reserve, Trump and his family have immersed themselves in crypto-related ventures in recent months.
In addition to the $TRUMP meme coin, World Liberty Financial — the separate crypto venture launched by Trump’s two elder sons — recently partnered in a $2 billion business deal with an investment firm backed by the state of Abu Dhabi and crypto exchange platform Binance.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, has denied that Trump’s personal forays into crypto amount to influence-peddling.
“The President is working to secure GOOD deals for the American people, not for himself,” Kelly said in a statement. “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly reelected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media.”
Thursday’s gala plays out against the backdrop of a fight in Congress over the first major legislation to regulate certain types of cryptocurrencies, called the GENIUS Act. Democrats have for weeks threatened to derail the legislation, citing in part the president’s potential conflicts of interest. Some Republicans have also acknowledged the Trump family’s entanglements in the crypto industry has made the legislation “more difficult.”
“That’s the concern that some people have. I know that he’s put his stuff in a blind trust,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told ABC News’ Jay O’Brien on Tuesday. “But their children are involved in these assets, and that still gives some people pause.”
Democrats have leveled harsher criticism. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D, Mass., called Thursday’s gala “corruption in plain sight.”
“We have no idea if they’re getting something in return for their big investment in Donald Trump personally,” she said.
Earlier this week, senators took a key step in advancing the GENIUS Act bill, but it still faces hurdles in passing the full Senate.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.