Trump’s meme coin business racks up fees as buyers jump at the chance for access to the president

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 Related Articles Georgia Republican Gov Brian Kemp won t run for US Senate seat in against Democrat Jon Ossoff Washington to host the NFL draft on the National Mall President Donald Trump says Rwanda confirms early talks to host deported US newcomers Visa crackdown leads international students in the US to reconsider summer movement How Alcatraz became America s largest part notorious prison Since the coin was launched earlier this year it has generated more than 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 nd that s open to almost anyone who buys enough of the coins According to the contest s rules the top holders of the meme coin will get to go to the dinner at Trump s Washington-area golf club The top holders will also get to attend a reception where they can rub shoulders with Trump beforehand Let the President know how multiple TRUMP coins YOU own the meme coin reported on its website promoting the dinner Trading activity in the meme coin jumped after the dinner was first disclosed 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 greater part popular crypto was born in the wake of the financial predicament 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 disclosed of the planned billion total coins Half of that was put up for inhabitants 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 pursuits 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 exchange You don t really care about what happens to the price You only care that there is continuous volume declared Nicolai S ndergaard 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 populace it s manageable to track how much in trading fees has been paid Chainalysis noted Trump meme coin creators made more than million in trading fees in the week after the dinner was first broadcasted The value of the meme coin jumped from about to around just after the announcement It was trading around on Monday afternoon Trump downplays profits Launched just before he took office Trump s meme coin has become one of the majority high-profile methods the norm-breaking president has mixed politics and his personal finances The remaining 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 During an interview with NBC s Meet the Press over the weekend Trump reported 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 a multitude of years if it goes up a little bit because I m president and doing a good job I don t think so Trump reported Heavy promotion The association 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 mentioned last week encouraging people to reply with memes featuring Trump Our favorite TRUMP memes will be shown to President Trump and we will pick person who gets to come to the dinner on May nd The creators have also tried to up the ante by offering Trump-themed watches to the top four holders of Trump s meme coins Unknown guests On Monday night Trump is hosting a Crypto AI Innovators Dinner benefit event 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 million per person to attend The super PAC will be required to list donors in its regular masses disclosures But whether the inhabitants will ever know who bought their way into the meme coin dinner with the president is unclear Unlike political donations that must be publicly announced there s no disclosure requirement for meme coin buyers The White House did not at once respond to a question about whether it would share details of the dinner s attendees 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 a multitude of Trump meme coins someone holds but also on how long After No 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