TLDR
- President Trump’s meme coin ($TRUMP) delayed insider token unlocks by 90 days, affecting 80% of the supply held by insiders.
- A dinner invitation for top 220 $TRUMP token holders caused the coin to surge over 50%, generating nearly $900,000 in trading fees for insiders in just two days.
- Senators Warren and Schiff are calling for an ethics investigation, describing the dinner as potential “pay to play corruption.”
- Since launching in January, the $TRUMP token has generated over $350 million in fees for entities connected to the president.
- The Trump family is involved in multiple crypto ventures, including the $MELANIA token and World Liberty Financial, which has raised $550 million.
President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures are making headlines after his meme coin project announced an exclusive dinner with the president for top token holders, causing the value to surge and generating substantial trading fees while drawing sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers.
The $TRUMP token, launched in January ahead of Trump’s inauguration, saw its value jump over 50% following Wednesday’s announcement promising dinner with the president at his golf club near Washington, D.C. for the top 220 holders. This price surge boosted the token’s market value to $2.7 billion and generated nearly $900,000 in trading fees for insiders in just two days, according to blockchain data company Chainalysis.
Token Lockups Extended
In a related development, the $TRUMP token’s official account revealed this week that all major unlocks of insider-held tokens would be delayed by an additional 90 days. Only 20% of the token supply is currently available for trading, with the remaining 80% held by insiders under a three-year vesting schedule.
These lockup periods are designed to prevent what crypto enthusiasts call a “rug pull,” where project creators cash out quickly while other investors face losses from falling prices. The extension pushes back the initial cliff and the next three months of daily vesting.
According to the project’s website, the Trump Organization and its affiliates control approximately 80% of the $TRUMP token supply. Since its January launch, trading activity has generated about $324.5 million in fees for insiders through the token’s built-in mechanism that routes a percentage of each trade to project-controlled wallets.
Ethics Questions Mount
The dinner announcement has drawn heavy criticism from Democratic lawmakers. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Adam Schiff sent a letter to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics urging an investigation into what they described as potential “pay to play corruption.”
“This latest action raises grave ethics and legal concerns, including the severe risk that President Trump and other officials may be engaging in ‘pay to play’ corruption by selling presidential access,” the senators wrote in their letter.
Senator Chris Murphy called it “the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close.”
The dinner contest includes a reception for the top 25 holders and a “VIP White House Tour” scheduled for the day after the dinner. The project’s website features a leaderboard displaying the usernames of top buyers.
Delaney Marsco, director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, told NBC News the arrangement represented an “unprecedented ethics breach,” though she noted it was unlikely to be illegal since “criminal conflicts of interest statutes don’t apply to the president.”
Warren and Schiff expressed concern that the arrangement could give foreign nationals and corporate entities with interests in federal action direct access to the president simply by investing in his crypto projects.
Trump’s Growing Crypto Empire
The $TRUMP token is part of a growing portfolio of crypto ventures associated with the president and his family. Shortly after its launch, First Lady Melania Trump introduced her own token — $MELANIA — which briefly exceeded $2 billion in market value.
Like most meme coins, neither the $TRUMP nor $MELANIA tokens offer any underlying product or service. Their value derives primarily from social media hype and speculation rather than utility or assets.
The Trump family is also backing World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance venture that has raised $550 million across two token sales since October. According to offering documents reviewed by CNBC, buyers are barred from reselling their tokens and receive no share of profits, while a Trump-affiliated entity is entitled to 75% of net revenue, including token sale proceeds.
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance shortly after the release of the Trump-related tokens stating that meme tokens don’t qualify as securities, effectively shielding the projects from immediate regulatory oversight.
Trump was elected with substantial support from the cryptocurrency industry, which contributed tens of millions to the 2024 election. After opposing digital assets during his first term, Trump campaigned as a crypto champion in 2024, portraying Democrats as hostile to innovation.
