🍽️ The Trump dinner pump

The Trump team figured out a way to defy gravity

Author

Michael McSweeney
April 27, 2025

I guess the Trump team figured out a way to defy gravity, memecoin style.

Earlier this week, a private dinner with President Trump was announced for “[t]he top $TRUMP Coin holders.” Specifically, the “TOP 25 COIN HOLDERS” according to the, uh, splashy website that debuted alongside the announcement. 

Predictably, TRUMP pumped, and is up more than 8% on the day. At time of writing, the memecoin is changing hands at $13.45 — a far cry from the all-time high above $75 when the coin launched before Trump’s inauguration. 

I won’t rehash all the controversy here, but suffice to say Trump’s memecoin raised deep and still-relevant questions around conflicts of interest and the potential for the memecoin to be a vector for pay-to-play politics. 

As the Washington Post reported, some buyers quickly hoovered up coins in an effort to score a spot on the dinner list. According to a leaderboard on the memecoin website, the top holder possesses more than 1.7 million TRUMP. The top username is “Sun” — prompting speculation that Justin Sun is positioning himself for a spot at the dinner table. 

In Washington, proximity is power. US crypto firms learned during the last election cycle that the ability to play the transactional game with Trump produces real results — just look at the executive actions to date, as well as the legislation developing in Congress on the stablecoin and market structure fronts. 

Are these healthy processes? I have my doubts. Did the crypto industry get what it wanted from Trump post-election? 100%. 

The memecoin dinner feeds this perception, and if the price action is any proof, people are ready to pay up for some facetime.

— Michael McSweeney

Brought to you by:

Why is bitcoin up — or down? What do developments in DC mean for crypto markets? What’s the next killer app in crypto? Subscribe to the Weekly CIO Memo to receive expert analysis on the biggest stories in crypto from Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan.

Every week, Matt and the Bitwise research team unpack key developments in crypto, offering clear, data-driven insights on the topics that matter most to investors. Get up to speed in five minutes or less.

Peaky Blinders fans are in for a treat of the crypto variety.

FG’s Felix Jauvin read the Trumpian tea leaves this week — check it out.

DTCC, the major securities player, is leaning even further into blockchain — here’s how.

Pantera’s Paul Veradittakit sat down for an Empire newsletter interview. Kick back and give it a read, it’s the weekend, yo.

The Solana Foundation is becoming a bit more choosy when it comes to validators it stakes with.

It’s Bitcoin Sign Guy’s world and we’re just coining in it.