- The guest list for Trump's memecoin gala finalised on Monday.
- Top 25 $TRUMP holders will enjoy a reception with the president.
- Crypto exchange HTX won the top bid.
With the guest list for President Donald Trump’s memecoin gala finalised on Monday, there’s just one question remaining: What to wear?
Black-tie is optional for the event on May 22, according to the website.
“I’ll wear a suit,” Kain Warwick, the founder of Infinex, a DeFi app, and the 45th largest Trump memecoin holder, told DL News.
Of course, what everyone really wants to know is who’s going.
While the wallet addresses are visible to anyone with an internet connection, the jumble of alphanumeric characters makes it quite the guessing game.
What is clear is the top 220 holders of his memecoin will get to join the president at the Trump National Golf Club in northern Virginia.
Moreover, investors who top the list will get an exclusive reception with the president before the dinner as well as “a special VIP tour,” though it’s unclear what they’ll see.
Blurred lines
Two ventures with close ties to the Trump family — CIC Digital and Fight Fight Fight — own 80% of the president’s memecoin, according to the memecoin’s website.
Every time an investor buys or sells $TRUMP, those firms get a piece of the action. The pair have already raked in $320 million from token trading fees, according to Chainalysis.
Democrats have decried the unprecedented event as “open corruption.”
And mounting concerns over how Trump is blurring the line between policymaking and his family’s crypto interests helped torpedo a Senate vote on a key stablecoin bill last week.
“President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest,” Anna Kelly, the deputy press secretary, told DL News in May.
‘A freebie’
In any event, Warwick and other memecoin buyers are looking forward to the evening on the banks of the Potomac River.
Onchain analytics show the DeFi founder began buying the Trump memecoin on January 18 when it was worth approximately $3. He scooped up more than 51,000 tokens, which at their peak price were worth more than $1.5 million.
“I bought them on the first day, so it was a freebie,” Warwick told DL News, referring to the token’s low price.
He doesn’t expect to get much face time with the president, Warwick told DL News.
Ogle, a pseudonymous invitee with more than 250,000 Trump tokens, told DL News he’ll wear a suit as well.
“If I wanted to have my info doxxed, I wouldn’t use a pseudonym.”
— Ogle, Trump memecoin investor
He began scooping up the tokens on launch day, according to onchain data.
As a top 25 token holder, Ogle qualifies for the private VIP reception with the president ahead of the dinner, as well as an undefined “special tour,” according to the website.
He says he’s not expecting much out of the event, but he wants to see who else made the VIP reception.
Ogle will also likely be joined by a representative from HTX, the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange.
Who is ‘Sun’?
Those VIP winners of Trump’s crypto ball are only identifiable by a crypto address and their registration name on the Trump website.
Ogle, for instance, is “ogle,” and Warwick is registered as “abc1.”
The memecoin’s top holder is an entity called “HTX hot wallet,” which is sitting on more than $18 million worth of $TRUMP, according to analytics firm Nansen.
On the memecoin website, the registration name says, “Sun.”
Could this be Justin Sun, the billionaire crypto founder of the Tron blockchain?
The entrepreneur was appointed as a global adviser to HTX in 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile. Plus, Sun invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial, the Trump family-backed venture that issued a stablecoin in March.
In February, the Securities and Exchange Commission, led by Trump appointees, asked a court to suspend a lawsuit against Sun.
HTX did not immediately respond to DL News’ request for comment. Justin Sun did not respond to DL News’ requests for comment.
Don’t dox
Warwick said he knows a few other people who are attending, but didn’t share any names.
Ogle said the same.
When asked if he was a US citizen, Ogle quipped, “This is crypto man.”
“If I wanted to have my info doxxed, I wouldn’t use a pseudonym.”
Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? Get in touch at liam@dlnews.com.
