Trump’s meme coin business racks up fees as buyers jump at the chance
for access to the president
[May 06, 2025] By
ALAN SUDERMAN
In the crypto world, meme coins are mostly just jokes with no intrinsic
value. But the Trump family is parlaying the president’s meme coin into
two valuable commodities: serious cash and access to the president.
Since the coin was launched earlier this year, it has generated more
than $320 million in fees for its creators, according to the blockchain
analysis firm Chainalysis. And on Monday, Trump promoted a dinner he’s
set to attend on May 22 that’s open to almost anyone who buys enough of
the coins.
According to the contest’s rules, the top 220 holders of the meme coin
will get to go to the dinner at Trump’s Washington-area golf club. The
top 25 holders will also get to attend a reception where they can rub
shoulders with Trump beforehand.
“Let the President know how many $TRUMP coins YOU own!” the meme coin
said on its website promoting the dinner.
Trading activity in the meme coin jumped after the dinner was first
announced and the price rose as well. But the Trumps don’t need to sell
any coins to make money.
How Trump makes money off the meme coin
Decentralization is foundational to cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, the world’s
most popular crypto, was born in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis
as a digital currency meant to be uncontrolled by banks or governments.
Trump meme coins can be traded on a decentralized exchange, which is
essentially a place where traders can swap goods without a middleman.
Instead of matching buyers and sellers one by one, decentralized
exchanges use something called a liquidity pool to ensure trades can
happen easily and instantly. Liquidity pools are essentially an
automated pot of funds that pair meme coins like $TRUMP with more
popular types of crypto that can be easily traded.
When the Trump meme coin was first launched, its creators initially
released 20% of the planned 1 billion total coins. Half of that 20% was
put up for public sale while the other half was put into a liquidity
pool. CIC Digital, an affiliate of the Trump Organization, and another
company receive “trading revenue derived from trading activities” of the
Trump meme coins, according to its website.
Through the liquidity pool, the creators of Trump’s meme coins make
money by charging tiny fees on each trade.
“You don’t really care about what happens to the price. You only care
that there is continuous volume,” said Nicolai Søndergaard, a research
analyst at the blockchain analytics firm Nansen. “Because the more
volume there is, that means more trades and therefore more fees for
you.”
Since cryptocurrency blockchains are public, it’s possible to track how
much in trading fees has been paid. Chainalysis said Trump meme coin
creators made more than $1.3 million in trading fees in the week after
the dinner was first announced. The value of the meme coin jumped from
about $9 to around $14 just after the announcement. It was trading
around $11 on Monday afternoon.
Trump downplays profits
Launched just before he took office, Trump’s meme coin has become one of
the most high-profile ways the norm-breaking president has mixed
politics and his personal finances.
The remaining 80% of Trump’s meme coins, which are still under a
lock-up, have been allocated to CIC Digital and another company. An
ethics agreement prohibits Trump from “day-to-day” decision making at
the Trump Organization when he’s president and limits the financial
information about the business that can be shared with him.
[to top of second column] |
Then Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024
Conference, July 27, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark
Humphrey, File)
 During an interview with NBC’s “Meet
the Press” over the weekend, Trump said he didn’t follow the price
swings of his meme coin and dismissed the idea that he was profiting
from the presidency. He also rejected a suggestion that he would
forgo any profits made from his crypto endeavors.
“Should I contribute all of my real estate that I’ve owned for many
years if it goes up a little bit because I’m president and doing a
good job? I don’t think so,” Trump said.
Heavy promotion
The team behind Trump’s meme coins has been aggressively trying to
promote the chance to eat with the president.
“Good News! President Trump is allowing one more person to attend
Dinner with Trump,” the meme coin’s official account on X said last
week, encouraging people to reply with memes featuring Trump. “Our
favorite $TRUMP memes will be shown to President Trump and we will
pick 1 person who gets to come to the dinner on May 22nd!”
The creators have also tried to up the ante by offering $100,000
Trump-themed watches to the top four holders of Trump’s meme coins.
Unknown guests
On Monday night, Trump hosted a closed-door “Crypto & AI Innovators
Dinner” fundraiser sponsored by his MAGA Inc. super PAC at his golf
club outside Washington. An invitation to the event that circulated
online instructs those invited to pay $1.5 million per person to
attend. The White House did not provide a list of attendees, though
the super PAC eventually will be required to list donors in its
regular public disclosures.
Whether the public will ever know who bought their way into the meme
coin dinner with the president is unclear, though. Unlike political
donations that must be publicly reported, there’s no disclosure
requirement for meme coin buyers.
Critics of Trump’s foray into meme coins, which includes several
Democrats, say the pseudonymous nature of cryptocurrency gives bad
actors the opportunity to try and unduly influence the president
through purchasing his digital assets.
The Trump meme coin website assures those who register for the
contest that their full legal name and contact information will
“never be publicly shown.”
Instead, registrants pick a username that’s displayed on the
website’s leaderboard. The ranking is dependent not just on how many
Trump meme coins someone holds, but also on how long.
After No. 220, the board has a note of encouragement for those just
below the cut to buy more of the meme coins.
“You’re so close. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT for your $TRUMP dinner.”
——
Associated Press reporter Will Weissert contributed.
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