Biggest Trump Coin Investors Are Offered Special Access

President Trump's cryptocurrency token soared more than 60% on Wednesday after the announcement that its biggest investors would be invited to dine with the president at one of his clubs and receive a special tour of the White House. "The most EXCLUSIVE INVITATION in the World," as the coin's website calls it, amounted to an offer of White House access in exchange for investing in a Trump business venture, the New York Times reports. "This is really incredible," said Corey Frayer, who oversaw SEC crypto policy during the Biden administration. "They are making the pay-to-play deal explicit."

The top 220 average holders of the memecoin from April 23 to May 12 will be invited to the dinner at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, near Washington, DC, the site says. The top 25 will meet Trump at a private reception and the tour—the invitation dropped "White House" from that mention during the day, per Politico. Ethics watchdogs have been critical of Trump's involvement in crypto since he launched $TRUMP just before taking office in January. The president is tighter with the industry than his predecessor, installing regulators who are easing crypto enforcement and backing helpful legislation, and the invitation promises he'll talk about the future of crypto at the dinner.

Rules kept backers of the project from selling the stash of coins they were allocated at the beginning until last week. That stoked fears that a big sale would cause $TRUMP, which already had lost much of its value, to drop more. But the price had been on a gradual incline recently until it took off when the invitation went public. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy quickly posted that Trump's offer is the "most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done." Tony Clark, head of a nonpartisan advocacy group concerning corporate and government ethics issued a statement saying that Trump "is openly inviting investors to have a bidding war over who can buy the most access to him while he laughs all the way to the bank." (More President Trump stories.)