President Trump and his business partners have promoted it as the world's most “exclusive invitation.” This is dinner with the US president for cryptocurrency investors called $Trump who bought the most of the family memo coins.
However, as the unusual contest approached its end on Monday, at least 17 of the 220 winning bidders found a way to effectively sponsor the contest.
These crypto investors had secured invitations for dinner, despite showing that they often held zeros of Memecoin, a novel digital currency based on jokes and mascots.
In other words, it is caused by the rules habits. Winners were selected based on the average number of coins held during the three weeks in which the contest was underway, not at the end of the bid.
Participants expected the coin price to crash as soon as the contest was over. And once the winners were announced, they did that on Monday afternoon, plummeting 6.5%. By that point, nearly 20 competitors had sold or transferred all of their Trump holdings, according to an analysis by the New York Times.
These traders benefited from the price surge driven by the promotion of the contest and were able to secure a dinner seat set for May 22 at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia on May 22.
That was not a plan. Trump, who manages 800 million coins, and his partners could benefit from higher prices. That's why Trump was urging people to buy coins during the auction period. His partners encouraged investors to continue holding them even after it was over.
The trading frenzy began on April 23rd, when a website related to Trump's coins announced the contest. The site said Trump will take part in dinner with Coin's Top 220 owners, attend a Top 25 “exclusive reception” and win the White House Tour the next day. An arcade-style leaderboard tracked the rankings and saw what crypto investors had to spend making the cut.
Competition has caused a surge in trading activity as investors fight for opportunities to meet Trump and, in some cases, use that access to promote policies that benefit the crypto industry.
However, the contest was also an opportunity to quickly earn profits from sophisticated traders.
One buyer bought $2.2 million in playing cards coins in early April, weeks before the contest began. By last Thursday, the account appeared to have sold it all, pocketing $957,779.25 on the flip. (The buyer was identified only by the nickname chosen. This buyer was called “Noah.”)
However, the buyer's account had so many coins early in the process that it ranked 25th on the leaderboard. That means those who control it must secure a dinner seat and a White House tour.
The contest attracted criticism from both Capitol Hill Democrats and Republicans, as well as from ethics lawyers whom Trump called corrupt gold-making.
“We could never have imagined a US leader working on this kind of glyft,” Oregon Democrat Sen. Jeff Markley said in an interview Monday. “The White House and President Trump sell access to the government and himself for personal gain.”
He said that he is particularly concerned that most of the contest winners remain anonymous, and many of them appear to be from overseas based on the exchanges they used to buy coins, while others are publicly saying they bought it to try to influence US policies.
Merckley has introduced a bill that would ban the president, vice president or senior executive officers and their families from the profits of crypto sales. He also asks the Government Ethics Bureau to investigate Trump's role in the $Trump venture.
A White House spokesman refused to request comments about the contest or responded to whether the White House tour would take place as planned. Last week, White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt said the president acted with only the interests of the American people in mind, and there was no conflict of interest.
Overall, the winners of the contest held $182 million worth of $Trump Coins at the time the contest was closed. They had spent $191 million to buy those coins. This means that, in total, the winners lost more money than they earned. According to an analysis of public transaction data by The Times.
This coincides with transaction data showing that most buyers of the coin have lost their money since it was first introduced in January. That totals $3.9 billion, according to an analysis by cryptographic data company INCA Digital.
According to estimates from industry data analyst Chainalysis, whether they make or lose money, the Trump family and their partners have earned trading fees every time a coin changes hands, earning at least $320 million since Trump was sold in January.
On Monday, the contest organizers appeared to want to stop selling. Perhaps it's clear that more dinner guests may throw away coins as the competition is over.
In an X's post, the official account promoting Memecoin said anyone who held $Trump's stash between Now and dinner would be rewarded with a no-equipped token without “Trump Diamond Hands,” a type of digital collectible known as NFTs.
The account also announced that coin holders would immediately earn “reward points” without explaining how the points will be distributed or what they will be used for. By Monday evening, the $Trump Coin price had been inched again.
