The Trump family has already won from the gala dinner that the US president is organizing for investors. To attend, they had to invest in his cryptocurrency.
Little is known about the participants in Trump's special gala dinner: Justin Sun, the company MemeCore and Kane Warwick have announced their participation publicly. They are crypto entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. But most of the other 220 guests and the winners of the TrumpCoin donation contest prefer to remain anonymous at the dinner. Journalists and cameras are not allowed.
All the guests have something in common: they have invested at least two million dollars in Trump's cryptocurrency. The winner - known only by the acronym SUN - even paid about 4.5 million US dollars, writes “The Washington Post”. All this to attend a dinner at the Trump family golf club. They want to promote their companies and possibly gain the president's trust, which could eventually lead to a change in the rules and simplify cryptocurrency trading.
The dinner is a project of the Trump family. The US president himself does not directly benefit from it, explains ARD. It is held at a private golf club, not at the White House. Otherwise, it would clearly be a violation of the law - says Frank Emmert, a law professor in Indiana. Because then Donald Trump would have used state resources for the organization. Now he only uses his name to attract guests.
The Trump family wins
Theoretically, anyone who invested in Trump's cryptocurrency had the opportunity to attend the dinner. But in practice, only the 220 most generous donors were accepted. The Trump family is profiting from the gala fundraising dinner in two ways: through the cryptocurrency trading portal “Fight Fight Fight”, in which he and his partners hold a majority stake, and through the increase in the value of their own cryptocurrency, TrumpCoin.
Since January, the family and their entourage have earned $34 million in trading fees and $312 million from the sale of the cryptocurrency, the “Washington Post” writes. Many other TrumpCoin buyers have achieved less significant success: their price has risen from a few cents to $75, but has since fallen back to about $14, explains ARD. Therefore, lawyer Emmert categorizes Trump's cryptocurrency as a purely speculative object.
Key moment
The timing of the dinner is politically charged: The US Senate is currently debating a bill on so-called stablecoins - a more secure type of cryptocurrency. It is about rules for trading, transparency and security. It is not even clear yet which regulatory body is responsible for the various cryptocurrencies and what role digital money should play in the financial system. Brady Dale from the online magazine “Axios” criticizes the legislative process. According to him, the authorities also have a vested interest in the crypto industry.
The White House denies that the president has any personal gain. There have always been such presidential fundraising dinners, ARD recalls. What is unusual in this case is that most of the donors are known only to the host. The public cannot understand who is trying to influence the president.