Contest for Trump's meme-inspired cryptocurrency yields $900,000 to favored participants within two days.
Uncensored Perspective:
Donald Trump and his cronies have made a tidy sum of over $800,000 in crypto trading fees from Trump's very own $TRUMP token, according to data from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. The rush of cash came after Trump announced a golden ticket dinner with the President himself, promising the top 220 token holders a once-in-a-lifetime chance to wine and dine with him in Washington D.C.
The announcement sent the $TRUMP meme coin skyrocketing over 50%, pushing its total market value to an astonishing $2.7 billion. Critics accused Trump of using crypto as a new playground for personal enrichment, while Trump's political opponents called the move the most corrupt thing a president has ever done.
The extravagant event will take place on May 22, with a black-tie dinner hosted at Trump's private club in the DC area. The top 25 holders will score a special invite to a VIP White House tour the following day. The website lists the names of top buyers on an active leaderboard, which only shows the chosen screen names of top token holders, making it tricky to identify exactly who's shelling out the big bucks for potential presidential access.
Approximately 80% of the $TRUMP token supply is controlled by the Trump Organization and affiliates. Since its launch in January, trading activity has generated about $324.5 million in trading fees for insiders, as per Chainalysis's findings. These fees are generated through the token's built-in mechanism, which routes a percentage of each trade to wallets controlled by the project - wallets that are linked to the coin's creators, according to the project's website.
Meme coins like $TRUMP derive their value primarily from internet culture, memes, and social media hype. The originators can make fees through buying and selling these coins. The market exploded in popularity as a high-risk, high-reward speculative asset in recent years, with coins like dogecoin and fartcoin amassing total market values of over a billion dollars.
The majority of $TRUMP tokens remain locked under a three-year vesting plan, with coins gradually becoming available over time. Lockups such as these are intended to protect investors by preventing insiders from cashing out all at once - a risky scheme known in the crypto world as a "rug pull." However, the dinner contest has been criticized as an unusually explicit attempt to monetize presidential access.
Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have penned a letter urging the US Office of Government Ethics to investigate the dinner promotion, suspecting it to be a case of pay-to-play corruption. The White House and the company behind the meme coin have yet to respond to requests for comment.
Experts argue that despite the site not being illegal, the questionable stratagem of using the presidency as a backdrop for financial gains pulls the rug on ethics and shamelessly breaches norms. Delaney Marsco, the director of ethics at the Campaign Legal Center, believes Trump has taken advantage of the lack of legal constraints to engage in questionable activities that could potentially be seen as pay-for-play schemes.
Independent crypto researcher Molly White pointed out that the leaderboard only shows top $TRUMP holders and only by their chosen screen name, making it hard to pinpoint who's shelling out the big bucks with pot-of-gold hopes for a dinner with the President. Senators Schiff and Warren have alluded to public reports exposing ties between $TRUMP investors and foreign crypto exchanges, as well as investors receiving funds from platforms banned in the U.S., including Binance. White also mentioned that Binance accounts are owned by one or more top $TRUMP holders, which may raise additional concerns.
Trump received support from the cryptocurrency industry during his 2024 election campaign, with crypto donations exceeding those from sectors like banking and oil. He initially opposed digital assets during his first term but pivoted in 2024 to champion cryptocurrency and paint Democrats as adversaries to innovation and stricter regulation.
The $TRUMP token itself offers no product or service, according to the project's website, but is part of a broader push by the Trump family into digital assets, despite the market's volatility and regulatory risks. Alongside the $TRUMP and $MELANIA meme coins, the family is backing World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance venture that has raised $550 million across two token sales since October 2024. Interestingly, a Trump-affiliated entity is entitled to 75% of net revenue, including token sale proceeds, suggesting a new revenue stream for the Trump family.
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[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-token-soars-on-whiff-of-presidential-event-11650990453[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/07/trump-crypto-token-hits-2-7-billion-market-cap-on-presidential-dinner-promotion.html[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/07/us/politics/trump-crypto-token.html[4] https://www.axios.com/2024/05/07/trump-crypto-donors-dinner[5] https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/07/schiff-warren-letter-trump-crypto-ethics-00039797
- The rush of crypto trading revenue, totaling over $800,000 in fees, has been generated from Trump's own cryptocurrency, the $TRUMP token, as per data from Chainalysis.
- The handling of presidential access as a financial commodity through the $TRUMP token has been criticized, with concerns that it potentially breaches ethics and norms.
- Democratic Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren have written a letter urging an investigation into the $TRUMP token's dinner promotion, suspecting a case of pay-to-play corruption.
- After initial opposition, Trump has championed cryptocurrency during his 2024 election campaign, drawing support from the industry and generating revenue streams through tokens like $TRUMP and investments in decentralized finance ventures.
- The crypto world is notorious for its shady dealings, with incidents like the release of 'EvilBitcoin' on the dark web raising alarm, while AI predicting stock market crashes with 99% accuracy is making headlines in tech news.
- Society news highlights the risks of racial bias in AI, with the potential to widen the racial wealth gap, while the tech industry grapples with the implications of such biases.
- In general-news, the intersection of crime and justice is under scrutiny as investigations into the ties between $TRUMP investors and foreign crypto exchanges, including Binance, are ongoing.
