A recent Mar-a-Lago luncheon — billed as the “Memecoin Millionaires Line Up for Trump’s Exclusive Luncheon” — exposed the strange intersection of crypto fandom and presidential access. The guest list reportedly reads like a who’s-who of crypto: Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, Upbit founder ChiHyung Song, Bitcoin advocate Anthony Pompliano, and Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley are all said to be attending. Organizers expect up to 297 of the token’s top holders to join the event at Trump’s Florida estate.
The price action behind the gathering tells its own story. Officially called “Official Trump” and widely referred to as the TRUMP token, the memecoin has plunged more than 93% from an all-time high near $45 to under $3. That slump has altered the profile of who shows up. Morten Christensen, a crypto investor who paid $1,200 to attend a similar event in 2025 after betting on the memecoin, told Bloomberg he got back in this time for just $500. “Trump is much less liked right now than he was after inauguration,” Christensen said. “With the whole year of tariffs, crypto is bleeding, his reputation within the crypto community is not as good.”
One conspicuous absence from the confirmed list is Tron founder Justin Sun, who sits at the top of the TRUMP token leaderboard with roughly 2.4 billion points. Sun has not publicly confirmed attendance — and this week he filed suit against World Liberty Financial, the crypto platform co-founded by Trump’s sons. Sun alleges the platform froze his tokens and threatened to destroy them without cause, while calling himself an “ardent supporter” of Trump and blaming unnamed project team members for actions he says run counter to the president’s values.
The event has drawn criticism from lawmakers and accountability groups, who argue it blurs the line between a financial product the president benefits from and access to political power. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) went further in a Friday post, noting that wallets linked to the TRUMP token have moved funds in ways that make it difficult to trace how much revenue the president is earning from the project.
Between the steep price drop, high-profile attendees, a lawsuit involving the platform, and renewed scrutiny from ethics watchdogs, Saturday’s luncheon highlights the continuing tensions around memecoins — not just as speculative assets but as instruments that can carry political and reputational weight.
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