By Michelle Conlin
NEW YORK (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s meme coin surged more than 60% on Wednesday after a post announcing "the most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the world" promised the top 220 buyers of $TRUMP a private gala dinner with the president on May 22.
In addition to the dinner at Trump National Golf Club in Washington, D.C., the top 25 holders would get "an ultra-exclusive private VIP reception with the President" as well as a "Special Tour," according to the announcement.
The post on a website promoting the $TRUMP coin is the latest in a flurry of cryptocurrency-related forays undertaken by Trump and his family that have garnered them hundreds of millions of dollars in fees alone.
Trump family ventures include a new crypto exchange, World Liberty Financial, as well as a pivot to crypto finance by Trump Media & Technology Group, the social media company in which the president holds a $3 billion stake.
Trump has promised to be America’s first "crypto president," and his administration has moved swiftly to scale back crypto enforcement and ease the industry’s regulatory framework.
The family’s push into crypto at the same time the president is overseeing a new oversight regime has fueled concerns about potential conflicts of interest and influence peddling.
Trump’s planned dinner with $TRUMP coin holders is "a race to the bottom for presidential grifting," said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, a nonpartisan government ethics watchdog group.
"There has never been a clearer case of a president using their office to put money in their pocket, or greater potential for special interests to buy an administration’s favor that could threaten the public interest," Carrk said.
Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, said: "President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest."
The $TRUMP coin, launched before the president’s January 20 inauguration, reached as high as $74.59 before falling to a low of $7.14 on April 7. Crypto analytics firm Chainalysis found that as of March 12 the coin had generated at least $350 million in fees for entities connected to the president.
As recently as last week, crypto watchers were expecting the $TRUMP coin to collapse as 40 million new tokens were set to unlock. The coin’s account on X said on Wednesday, though, that the unlock would be delayed for 90 more days.
The terms of the $TRUMP dinner offer state that "President Trump may not be able to attend" but that winners would receive a limited edition TRUMP NFT "in lieu thereof."