In brief
Trump spent nearly an hour at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday speaking with top holders of his meme coin.
The president discussed the Iran war, crypto, China, and Joe Biden with a mostly foreign crowd of attendees.
The gathering came as Trump’s crypto ventures face growing scrutiny in Washington.
President Donald Trump on Saturday attended a conference for top holders of his meme coin, delivering off-the-cuff remarks for nearly an hour to an adoring crowd of crypto investors, tech executives, hedge fund managers, and MAGA diehards.The event, held at Mar-a-Lago, landed as the Trump family’s sprawling crypto portfolio faces growing scrutiny on Capitol Hill, causing divisions even among Republicans as key crypto legislation stalls in Congress.Yet the president appeared undeterred this weekend, indulging his crypto supporters with a splashy celebration thrown at the heart of his political empire.Entrance to the crypto conference was granted only to the top few hundred holders of Trump’s meme coin. The token’s top 29 investors also gained access to an additional, VIP-only gathering with the president. Announcement of the event initially spiked the price of Trump’s meme coin, which trades as TRUMP, up from $2.93 to $4.37—an increase of almost 50%. But the coin has since dropped significantly in value, trading at just $2.51 at writing. The token is down over 96% since launching in January 2025.Despite the token’s sagging price, conference attendees who spoke with Decrypt said they were generally pleased with the event—chiefly because it allowed them to visit Mar-a-Lago, a venue of great significance in Trumpworld.It was also much less expensive to qualify for this gathering than last year’s inaugural Trump meme coin dinner. Many investors paid several million dollars a head to attend that initial event, hoping for a private audience with the most powerful man in the world.Ultimately, though, Trump only delivered brief remarks at the dinner, held at his Virginia golf club, and did not spend any time in conversation with attendees. Pricing this time around seemed to adjust to those new expectations. One attendee of Saturday’s Mar-a-Lago conference told Decrypt he qualified to attend after purchasing just $3,000 worth of the president’s meme coin.The attendee, who also went to last year’s meme coin dinner, said he preferred this year’s event—because of the Mar-a-Lago setting.Multiple guests at Saturday’s meme coin conference described the crowd as predominantly foreign. Three guests told Decrypt that at least half of the attendees appeared to have flown in from Asia.Decrypt reached out to the White House for a conference guest list but did not receive a response.On Saturday afternoon, Trump first gathered briefly with the top 29 holders of his meme coin, riffing on favorite topics including crypto, AI, and his relationship with China and President Xi Jinping. Notably absent at the talk, according to multiple attendees, was Justin Sun—the controversial crypto entrepreneur who has historically been the top holder of the TRUMP token.
