By Michelle Conlin<\/p>\n
PALM BEACH, Florida, April 25 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump hosted winners of his second annual meme coin contest at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday, offering top buyers of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency an audience with him even as the token’s value has plunged more than 95% from its \u200cpeak last year.<\/p>\n
The gala took place as scrutiny of the Trump family\u2019s broader crypto ventures has intensified, with Democratic leaders calling for investigations.<\/p>\n
The 297 largest $TRUMP token holders who registered \u200cfor the contest attended a gathering that Trump has billed as the “most exclusive” crypto and business conference in the world, where he gave the keynote address. The top 29 also attended a \u201cspecial VIP reception and champagne toast\u201d with the president.<\/p>\n
The \u200bday-long event is the latest example of Trump blending presidential stature with his family\u2019s growing portfolio of speculative crypto ventures – a convergence government ethics experts say has little modern precedent, particularly since Trump’s personal crypto wealth has ballooned as he reshapes U.S. crypto policy.<\/p>\n
Trump’s appearance at the gala was not open to the public. But he later told reporters that he felt an “obligation” to support the crypto industry.<\/p>\n
“As a president, I have to be able to make sure that all of our industries do well,” Trump said before he boarded Air Force One on Saturday afternoon for his return to Washington, \u200cD.C. “Crypto is a big industry, it’s actually become somewhat mainstream.”<\/p>\n
While many \u2060retail buyers who piled into the token around its launch have seen most of their paper gains disappear, the Trump family and affiliated entities have continued to profit from the broader crypto ecosystem.<\/p>\n
A Reuters examination found that the family has taken in more than $1 billion from crypto asset sales, including \u2060at least $336 million tied to meme-coin sales in the first half of 2025 alone, with potentially billions more in unrealized gains.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s assets are in a trust managed by his children,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Reuters, adding that the president only acts in the best interests of the American public. “There are no conflicts of interest.”<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s meme-coin contest, at his golf club near Washington, D.C., raised similar concerns for \u200bethics \u200bexperts, as did a February conference at Mar-a-Lago hosted by the president\u2019s sons, Eric and Don Jr., for \u200bWorld Liberty Financial, the Trump family\u2019s most lucrative crypto venture, which drew \u200ctop figures from Washington, D.C. and Wall Street.<\/p>\n
Contest rankings were based not only on holdings of $TRUMP but also on purchases of Trump-branded merchandise – including sneakers, watches and fragrances – between March 12 and April 14. Winners are set to receive Trump-branded items including a commemorative poster, two trading cards, a “Fight Fight Fight Red Beauty” watch and a fragrance.<\/p>\n
$TRUMP TOKEN NEAR LOWS<\/p>\n
The $TRUMP token is hovering near its all-time lows and is down steeply from the $75 high hit shortly after it was introduced in January 2025.<\/p>\n
Late on Friday, $TRUMP was trading at roughly $3. As Trump spoke it fell to $2.53 amid a flurry of trading on Saturday morning and remained below $2.60 after he left Florida.<\/p>\n
The 297 qualifying winners hold roughly $29 million worth of $TRUMP, according to crypto analytics firm Nansen, far below the $148 million Reuters \u200creported they held for the inaugural May 2025 contest.<\/p>\n
“The contrast with last year’s launch is stark,” according \u200bto a Nansen analysis prepared for Reuters. When it was launched, buyers accumulated and held the token, helping fuel \u200ba sustained rally, Nansen said. “The 2026 contest generated a moment of activity, but not the \u200bsame conviction we saw in 2025. Demand just isn\u2019t sticking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meme coins – a type of crypto with no utility or intrinsic value – are based on online \u200ctrends and viral cultural phenomena. Most of them exhibit parabolic price curves, \u200bwith a rise in the early stage often \u200bfollowed by a plunge in value.<\/p>\n
Among the top $TRUMP wallets, according to blockchain data, is one linked to crypto billionaire Justin Sun, who finished first in the contest for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n
Sun, one of the largest publicly known investors in World Liberty, sued the company on Tuesday, alleging that it froze his holdings. Investors have grown frustrated with \u200bthe venture, saying it is opaque, tightly controlled and unresponsive to \u200ccomplaints.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, World Liberty co-founder and CEO Zach Witkoff, the son of Trump administration special envoy Steve Witkoff, called the lawsuit \u201cmeritless,\u201d and accused Sun \u200bof \u201cmisconduct that required World Liberty to take action to protect itself and its users.”<\/p>\n
Sun did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Michelle Conlin in New \u200bYork and David Hood-Nu\u00f1o in Palm Beach, Florida; Editing by Sergio Non, David Gaffen and Andrea Ricci )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Michelle Conlin PALM BEACH, Florida, April 25 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump hosted winners of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,231693,12,2808,102114,81846,263980],"class_list":{"0":"post-607419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-crypto-policy","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-palm-beach","13":"tag-trump-family","14":"tag-world-liberty"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}