Winners and Dinner: Trump's Token Dinner

Author: Thejaswini MA, Nameet Potnis, Prathik Desai

Compiled by: Block unicorn

Preface

On May 22, the top 220 holders of $TRUMP tokens will have dinner with the president at Trump’s Virginia Golf Club.

But is there a problem? Blockchain analysis shows that most attendees may not be Americans.

Through wallets related to exchanges such as Binance that do not serve U.S. customers, and spent a total of $148 million to get an invitation, the dinner represents the intersection of cryptocurrency, politics and foreign influence.

Who was the invitation to have dinner with the president?

Are they speculative traders, strategic influence buyers, or are they completely different roles?

What happens when a world leader invites anonymous online strangers to dinner just by the number of tokens he bought?

Guest List

If you spend a lot of money on $TRUMP tokens by May 12, congratulations, you may have dinner with the President this Wednesday.

"Hold as much as possible from April 23 to May 12. The average holdings you hold during this period will determine your ranking. The more $TRUMP you hold, the longer you hold, the higher your ranking will be."

So who was successfully selected?

Let's take a look at the seating chart.

Table 1: Giant Whale

Sitting at the top of this table is a recognized king of $TRUMP: Justin Sun, who officially announced on Monday that he was the number one holder on the rankings. The Tron founder holds more than 1.4 million TRUMP tokens worth approximately US$20 million.

Not only did Sun hold the tokens—he doubled down after the dinner announcement, but added 359,000 TRUMP tokens (about $4.72 million) during the qualification review period.

The Tron founder is no stranger to the controversy - he is currently negotiating with the Securities and Exchange Commission on fraud charges. The SEC, led by Trump-appointed officials, had requested a court in February to suspend its lawsuit against Justin Sun.

Also with him is: Singapore-based MemeCore, which invested $18 million. They are very active in fighting for dinner tickets, almost live streaming their token buying frenzy.

Table 2: International Column

According to Bloomberg, 19 of the top 25 wallets belong to individuals outside the United States.

• Infinex founder Kane Warwick (Australia), told reporters that he would be "wearing a suit" to the dinner and was not looking forward to having too much face-to-face time with the president.

• Vincent Liu from Kronos Research , Taiwan.

• Anonymous attendee with the pseudonym " Ogle ", who holds more than 250,000 tokens , declined to disclose his citizenship, saying, "This is the crypto world, brother. If I want my information to be exposed, I will not use a pseudonym."

• Several anonymous wallets associated with Asian exchanges.

The third table: "Barrowly selected" group

The last qualifying holder had 4196 tokens, worth approximately $60,000 at the end of the day. If they sell immediately after their qualification confirmation (considering a 10% price drop), the actual cost of "attendance" dinner is about $6,000, which is simply a bargain price compared to the $1 million "Candle Light Dinner" ticket sold by the Trump Super Political Action Commission in March.

It is worth noting that Houston logistics company Freight Technologies spent $2 million to try to influence U.S.-Mexico trade policy by purchasing tokens, but eventually ranked 250th, missing the entry 30th place behind. It's really miserable. . .

price tag

The numbers behind this dinner are jaw-dropping.

For guests:

• $148 million: Total spending for all 220 eligible wallet holders .
• $4.8 million: Average amount of coin holdings for VIP guests (top 25).
• USD 20 million: Justin Sun confirmed the amount of coin holding (1.5 million TRUMP tokens).
• $60,000: The amount of the coin held by the last eligible guest (No. 220) at the end.

contrast:

• $1 million: Tickets for "Candlelight Dinner" with Trump, sold by the Super PAC in March

• $5 million: Prices for one-on-one talks with the president through traditional channels.

• $15 billion: The peak market value of the $TRUMP token after its launch on January 19.

• $2.9 billion: Current market value.

• $320 million: Transaction fees charged by Trump-related entities.

• 80%: Token ratio controlled by Trump Group and its affiliates (specifically CIC Digital and Fight Fight LLC)

The transfer of wealth here is shocking. Behind every winner of the celebration dinner invitation, there are thousands of losers who funded the party without being invited.

Complexity

Just having dinner with the president? No. This is a diplomatic, legal and moral minefield:

Identity Crisis

Since crypto wallets are anonymous, no one knows exactly who bought these tokens. Some wallets can be traced back to known individuals, but others are completely anonymous.

The Secret Service must be overwhelmed when reviewing these guests. "Mr. President, we only have a wallet address that starts with 0x4f9..."

VIP experience

The dinner itself is just part of the experience. The top 25 top VIPs will also receive exclusive reception with Trump before the dinner and enjoy a "special VIP tour" (although what it is, it is not clear at this time. This is usually a treatment reserved for $5 million super PAC donors.

Foreign influence

Senator Richard Blumenthal warned that the Trump family's cryptocurrency business could become a "secret backdoor for foreign and corporate interests to seek access to the president."

It is difficult to refute this statement when most dinner guests are foreign citizens who have paid hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of dollars to be admitted.

Legislative Impact

Despite initial concerns, the dinner controversy ultimately did not hinder cryptocurrency legislation. The Senate has actually passed a bipartisan vote to advance the GeNIUS Act stablecoin regulation bill, with Democrats and Republicans working together to push the bill forward.

While some Democrats initially expressed reservations, the progress of the bill suggests that cryptocurrency regulation is becoming a real bipartisan priority beyond the controversy of meme coin dinners.

An investigation is underway

Democratic lawmakers have requested access to all suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to World Liberty Financial and $TRUMP tokens since 2023.

The request specifically requests all references to WinRed, America PAC, Elon Musk, Trump, WLF, TRUMP, MELANIA and Justin Sun. The survey train has just begun.

Subsequent

What happens after clearing the plate? Here are the things to pay attention to:

Market trends : It is expected that a typical "selling news" sale will occur after the dinner . Those who buy tokens purely for information have no reason to continue holding after the dinner.

Media Report : How much access will the media have? Will attendees share details or sign a confidentiality agreement to keep silent? Transparency will reveal to a large extent the true purpose of the event.

Political consequences : Democrats have used the dinner as a weapon to attack the government. There are expected hearings, investigations, and even legislation on similar “for access” schemes.

Copycat Activities : If Trump’s move works, other politicians may follow suit. Imagine cabinet ministers holding a token holder luncheon or senators holding an NFT meeting.

Whether you think this dinner is innovative or corrupt depends largely on your political stance. But one thing is certain: the boundaries between cryptocurrencies and political influence have never been so blurred.

Remember - cryptocurrency is like politics, there is no free lunch in the world. Especially when this lunch costs millions of dollars in meme tokens.