Cryptocurrency traders participating in an event competing for the holdings of the meme coin "Trump Official" have reportedly secured dinner invitations with U.S. President Donald Trump while also making significant revenue. Some participants were also observed to have sold all their holdings immediately after the event concluded.
The British daily Financial Times (FT) reported this fact on the 17th (local time).
The event, which took place from the 23rd of last month, was structured around participants competing for how many Trump coins they held in a public wallet over a certain period.
The top 25 finalists will secure invitations to a gala dinner with President Trump on the 22nd at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.
Immediately after news of the event broke, the price of Trump coin skyrocketed from $9.26 to $15.33. However, upon confirming the final list of dinner attendees on the 12th of this month, a large sell-off occurred. It was found that many participants moved or sold their coins.
According to analysis by FT, 16 out of the 25 wallets belonging to VIP dinner attendees currently hold no Trump coins. Additionally, it appears that 22 of these wallets accumulated coins since the announcement of the event, resulting in significant revenue achieved in a relatively short period.
In particular, a wallet named "Woo" purchased 1 million coins and sold them immediately after the event, analyzing a profit of about $2.6 million (approximately 360 million won).
On the other hand, there were also cases of losses. An account named "SUN" was one of three wallets that held Trump coins prior to the event, purchasing 800,000 coins at a peak price of $61.13 each. Based on the current market price of $12.96, it is estimated to have incurred an evaluation loss of about $66 million (approximately 9.24 billion won).
In the cryptocurrency industry, there is a high possibility that this account belongs to Justin Sun, the founder of the virtual asset platform TRON. He has previously invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency business linked to the Trump family, and in 2023, he was charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is currently under investigation.
Meanwhile, a total of 195 people received gala dinner invitations at this event, and it was confirmed that 56 of them had withdrawn all their Trump coins.