May is to be a high-powered political fundraiser.
The first event is set as a political fundraiser on Monday, May 5. This gathering is one of the most expensive political fundraisers in recent history, with a staggering price of $1.5 million per attendee. MAGA Inc., a super PAC backing Trump, is said to host it. It is dubbed “the Crypto & AI Innovators Dinner.” President Trump is said to be the primary speaker for the dinner alongside special guest David Sacks, who, as described in the source, has been actively rewriting the country’s rules on crypto and AI.
MAGA Inc. is the identified committee that will receive the proceeds from this difficult-to-ignore dinner. The source mentions Trump being constitutionally barred from a third presidential run and does highlight the mystery around PAC’s spending strategies on speculative multi-million-dollar captures through spring dinners.
Context of Shift in Policy and Influence
It is said that the crypto community has voiced support for the increasing influence of David Sacks within the Washington circles.
He and other Trump-aligned appointees have been given credit by portions of the crypto community for bringing about a sweeping policy change. This policy shift is said to have led to a number of favorable actions being taken across several federal government departments. Numerous industry executives are claiming this recent bipartisan approach to policy is a reversal of the Biden administration’s stance, or what they call a 180-degree change. The attendance of people like Sacks at these fundraisers has apparently highlighted for some in the crypto space the connection between political sponsorship and regulatory authority.
Memecoin Millionaires Gala
The second cryptocurrency-specific occasion planned for President Trump is a gala dinner scheduled for May 22. This gathering will take place at Trump National, which is the president’s private club in Washington, D.C. area. The process by which the guest list for this dinner will be decided is quite unusual; it will be determined through a contest on the blockchain held by the $TRUMP memetoken creators. Gubernatorial access rests on the quantity of tokens held—the top 220 token holders are guaranteed dinner with the president. The deadline for the contest is reportedly May 12. Other than that, the gala, as described, is black tie optional.
The “VIP White House Tour” and a special white reception have reportedly been offered to the 25 biggest holders of the memecoin. The website related to the contest purportedly has an active leaderboard listing the usernames of the top buyers of the coin, thus adding a contest-like and public incentivizing element to access.
Watchdog Criticism
This blockchain-based contest and its associated gala have come under severe scrutiny from a watchdog group. Accountable.US, a self-defined center-left group that focuses on corporate and political accountability, has allegedly lashed out at the contest based on the leaderboard system. They have asserted that it is “the most nakedly corrupt self-enrichment scheme in U.S. presidential history.” The watchdog claims that the structure of this contest treats access to the president as a commodity that could be purchased by wealthy donors, foreign or otherwise. They also argue that this arrangement financially benefits the Trump family.
Anonymity and Identity Challenges
The specific features of crypto wallets allegedly make it difficult to verify the identities of the top token holders in the contest independently. Crypto wallets have features that are pseudonymous because their identification is done by an address and not a name. Reports say that unless a token holder has publicly shared their wallet address, it is extremely difficult to independently verify their identity. This anonymity factor reportedly enhances the complexity of transparency concerning who is gaining access through this method.
Related Crypto Projects and Legal Context
The source provides an anecdote about other Trump-affiliated crypto projects. Allegedly, in January, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun increased his token stake in another Trump-related crypto project. Allegedly, the founder of the Tron blockchain disclosed that he owns 75 million US dollars’ worth of the tokens of World Liberty Financial. Reportedly, a court filing the next month revealed Sun was negotiating, along with the SEC, a settlement with the SEC’s civil fraud lawsuit against the crypto entrepreneur, thereby contextualizing the Trump-affiliated crypto figures within legal proceedings.
Contest Risks and Miscellaneous Small Prints
The $TRUMP contest includes an overarching risk participants will take on as well as additional details that can be defined as fine print. Based on the terms and conditions stated on the website of the contest, it does not guarantee that President Trump will be able to make it for the dinner. Another mentioned them including that “for any reason,” the event can be canceled. As part of the cancellation, restricting holders who were eligible for the dinner would allegedly receive a Trump NFT (non-fungible token) instead of dining with the president.
Evictions’ Impact on the Market and Insider Activity
The contest has reportedly had the greatest effect on the market activity of the $TRUMP coin. Even during the gala’s announcement, the token reportedly surged more than 50%, which allegedly increased the paper value of wallets held by insiders and early backers of the project. The source states approximately 80% of the $TRUMP token supply is reportedly held by the Trump Organization and affiliates, according to the website of the project. Trading activity after the token’s launch in January purportedly earned over $324 million in trading fees for insiders, according to research by Chainalysis.
As per a report, a portion of every transaction is sent to a wallet controlled by the project, which supposedly belongs to the coin’s creators in accordance with the website. Fees are created through the token’s constructed system. However, insiders have purportedly concurred to forgo liquidating their direct stake for at least 90 days, according to the public disclosures tied to the project.
