Trump’s meme coin crypto marketing script, a presidential dinner that may not be present?

Author: Weilin, PANews

Trump seems to understand the marketing "routine" of the crypto industry after issuing MEME coins. On April 23, the meme coin project $TRUMP launched by US President Trump officially released an "exclusive benefit": it will hold a "opportunity to have dinner with Trump" for the top 220 token holders. According to the official website, the grand gathering is scheduled to be held at Trump Golf Club in Washington on May 22 this year. The slogan is very contagious and calls the event "the most exclusive invitation in the world."

With the announcement of the news, the price of TRUMP coins has risen rapidly in the short term, but behind this rise, $TRUMP has just experienced unlocking, and it also hides the "script" that has been familiar to people recently - unlocking, pulling up the market, and shipment, supplemented by a narrative of a "presidential dinner". Is this dinner sincerely giving back to cryptocurrencies, or is it a marketing planned for the market?

The recent unlocking of $TRUMP has brought selling pressure, and the

Trump team used the currency circle to "pull up shipments"?

Whether it is the "Trump Big Head Photo" NFT series launched previously, the Bitcoin-themed custom sneakers, or the crypto project WLFI, which was participated by family members, the Trump team seems to be more familiar with the psychology of users in the currency circle. $TRUMP meme continues this style of play and throws out a "dinner invitation" at critical moments.

The Trump dinner promotion page reads: It is "the most exclusive invitation in the world. Only the top 220 $TRUMP Meme coin holders. President Donald J. Trump is hailed as the 'crypto president'! In this private dinner, there will be a chance to listen to President Trump telling his views on the future of cryptocurrencies with his own ears." What sparked market enthusiasm is the additional benefits for the top 25 big players: exclusive reception and VIP itinerary.

In order to qualify for participation, users need to register and accept Leaderboard sort based on "time-weighted positions".

Rumors of the dinner first appeared on April 20, when TRUMP tokens ushered in a 4% unlock period, which has caused investors to worry about the intensified selling pressure. However, driven by the news, market sentiment quickly reversed and the token stopped falling and rebounded.

On April 23, after the news of the dinner was officially announced, the price of TRUMP tokens rose significantly, rising from $9.35 to $16.7 at noon on April 24. At noon on April 25, its price fell back to around US$12.06, with an increase of 60.46% in 7 days.

Previously, the first attribution unlocking of TRUMP tokens took effect on April 18, releasing 40 million tokens worth about US$309 million, while the decline from the token's highest point reached 90%.

The operation of "good luck and unlocking period" is very common in the currency circle. PANews recently sorted out the on-chain data and found that in the past three months, the big players of TRUMP have changed hands very frequently . Compared with the data on January 20, among the top 1,000 coin holders, 86.9% of the large investors chose to clear tokens, with a total of 48 million tokens cleared, accounting for 24% of the total circulation. On April 18, TRUMP tokens welcomed 4% of the tokens unlocked. But on April 20, news broke that Trump planned to hold a dinner for TRUMP token holders. Then, TRUMP stopped falling and began to rebound. The dinner event happened to become a "new story".

What followed was more frequent on-chain activities, showing the FOMO sentiment of the coin holder. On April 24, according to Lookonchain monitoring, a long-term $TRUMP liquidity provider pulled liquidity from two wallets about 2 hours ago and retrieved a total of 211,977 $TRUMP and 18,376 $SOL, both of which were approximately $2.76 million. At that time, both wallets ranked among the top 220 holdings of $TRUMP and were expected to receive a Trump dinner invitation. The address initially purchased 332,000 $TRUMP for $2.41 on the first day of its launch, and once had a market value of over $24 million.

On the same day, according to Arkham monitoring, a certain HTX cold wallet had completed registration for Trump's dinner event. The wallet held $14.6 million worth of TRUMP tokens, making it the largest number of wallets registered for this dinner. It is worth mentioning that Justin Sun, a member of the HTX Global Advisory Committee, is an advisor to the Trump family project WLFI.

On April 25, the official clarification was made that the threshold for participation caused misunderstanding. TrumpMeme official X account says that you can participate without holding $TRUMP tokens with a position of more than $300,000. Participation eligibility is based on registration and time-weighted positions on Leaderboard, non-block browser ranking. The initial unlock and daily unlocking of tokens will still be locked for an additional 90 days to ensure fairness in the competition.

Dinner details show that Trump may not attend, and the previous dinner

planning was "spreading pigeons" several times

It is worth noting that this time, the official terms and conditions of Trump’s Meme currency $TRUMP show that the organizer of the $TRUMP dinner reserves the right to change the time and place. President Trump may be absent, and eligible $TRUMP holders will be issued a limited edition NFT as a replacement if the dinner is cancelled or if he fails to attend. All participants must be at least 18 years of age and pass security checks and background checks. The relevant travel and accommodation costs must be borne by themselves.

A 2019 X-Platform post was re-recommended with the news, showing that dinner was a common strategy for Trump, but he had missed at least 15 similar promises.

In November 2019, a series of contests for Trump campaign donors to have breakfast, lunch or dinner with him was denounced as "fraud." According to reports from the Guardian and other media, Popular Information, a news organization led by journalist Judd Legum, has verified at least 15 competitions that have been held by the Trump campaign since 2018, which offers breakfast, lunch or dinner opportunities with the president. "Responsors were tempted to donate to the Trump campaign, promising free travel, accommodation and an opportunity to have a 'great' meal with Trump all over the country," the website said. However, the Popular Information investigation "has found no evidence that someone actually won the awards."

Popular Information's second post pointed out that the awards for the Trump campaign to celebrate breakfast with Trump in New York, which the Trump campaign has advertised in hundreds of Facebook ads is fraudulent. The article pointed out that although a woman named Joanna Kamis was invited to a breakfast event in New York, Trump did not have any meals with her and only took photos with her afterwards.

Dinners with political candidates are traditional means to increase visibility and raise funds. In 2012, former US President Obama promoted "dinner with Barack" during his re-election campaign.

In response to the report, Trump's campaign denied allegations of his operational scam. "Every match has a winner. Any report to the contrary is wrong," said Erin Perrine, chief deputy communications director for the Trump campaign. As evidence, Erin Perrine sent a link to the article from the Washington Post in October 2017, showing donor Chris Chavez and his father, Tracy Chavez, met with Trump at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona. But after verification, Chavez participated in another competition that did not involve a dinner party.

Despite this, Trump has fulfilled his promises, but before taking office as US president. As early as before taking office in January 2025, on the evening of May 8, 2024 local time, Trump held an NFT dinner at the Maarago Resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Buyers who purchased at least 47 Trump’s “MugShot Edition” (big headshot) NFT were invited to attend. At that time, Hong Kong actor Fung Fong, who was keen on NFT, also appeared on the scene.

Trump's MEME dinner also fell into the hands of the Democrats' attack. On April 24, in response to "Trump will have dinner with the top 220 holders of TRUMP tokens", Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, USA, said: "This not only reflects Trump's nature, but the TRUMP coin scam may be the most blatantly corrupt presidential behavior ever." Obviously, his political opponents are not optimistic about this publicity and activity.

It can be seen that the "Trump Dinner" has successfully attracted the attention of the crypto market with its high-profile celebrity effect, and has also allowed TRUMP coins to achieve a short-term price rebound during the unlocking period. However, whether the dinner is fulfilled, whether the president is present, and whether the participants are truly benefiting are still unknown. Looking back on the past record of "mealing together" and the adjustment of dinner rules, investors and users should probably be more aware of the risks.

How long can the narrative of "encrypted president" be told depends on further tests.