Who’s on the Guest List for Trump’s Meme Coin Dinner?
When President Donald Trump welcomes top holders of his meme coin to dinner Thursday night he will be joined by the likes of Ogle a pseudonymous hacker who described one outlet he will wear a bandana around his face to avoid being doxxed It s a sign of the mystery surrounding the meme coin dinner despite calls for transparency and concern about foreign investors buying access to the president Trump s meme coin company last month stated that the top owners of the cryptocurrency would win an invite to dinner Ethics experts say the dinner is unprecedented in its brazen offering of access to the president for profit The average cost of admission was over million according to one analysis At least let the American people know who has bought access to the president Trump s announcement revived interest in the Trump project which sends transaction fees back to its creators every time a coin is traded Those fees have so far amounted to more than million in total according to the company Chainalysis Democrats plan to picket the dinner outside the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia and a group of senators held a press conference Thursday calling on Trump to at least make the guest list constituents Release the names of the people who are going to be there Sen Chris Murphy D-Conn noted At least let the American people know who has bought access to the president Release the names If there is nothing wrong if you think this is all aboveboard then what are you hiding Karoline Leavitt the White House press secretary announced the event was unrelated to Trump s official duties in response to a question about the guest list Thursday The president is attending it in his personal time It is not a White House dinner it is not taking place here at the White House she explained Here s what we do know about who is attending Justin Son a Controversial Crypto Magnate The majority famous or infamous according to a competitor guest at the dinner is Justin Son the Chinese-born crypto billionaire behind the blockchain Tron Only two years ago Son was facing down a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit and a stated Justice Department examination After Son bought million worth of tokens in a separate Trump crypto venture World Liberty Financial his fortunes shifted The SEC paused its lawsuit in February Son expanded his holdings in Trump crypto ventures by snapping up roughly million worth of the TRUMP coin which Trump reported hours before his inauguration That won him the right to attend dinner with Trump on Thursday night It s a remarkable twist for a man who according to the Wall Street Journal once avoided visiting the U S for fear of arrest While Son has essentially bought himself a White House seal of approval via the TRUMP coin he cast the dinner as primarily a networking opportunity in a post on X Ice a Co-Founder of the Singaporean Crypto Company MemeCore In legal documents the creators of the TRUMP coin have cast it as more akin to a playing card rather than an capital Perhaps it s appropriate then that another top buyer of the TRUMP coin is a Singaporean company promising to reignite global meme practices That company MemeCore is sending a co-founder who goes by the name of Ice to the crypto dinner according to several published reports Like several other investors in the TRUMP coin MemeCore s purchases seem to be more an exercise in branding in the hype-driven world of crypto than an endorsement of the president himself Donald Trump is more than a political figure he is arguably one of the iconic living memes His rise represents the power of memes to influence civilization perception and movements principles that align with MemeCore s vision of a decentralized community-driven future a company spokesperson commented Ogle a Crypto Precaution Expert Another anonymous figure attending the dinner is Ogle a so-called white hat hacker who has been involved in returning the crypto tokens looted during hacks back to their owners Ogle last year released that he was signing on to another Trump crypto venture World Liberty Financial as an adviser He claimed his compensation for that project is minimal He has also acknowledged trading the TRUMP coin but cast himself as ignorant about how much he has made In interviews about the dinner Ogle has described himself as somewhat of a gawking outsider Curiosity is literally it I have no expectations I m just curious to see how it ll go I m hoping it ll be fun and hoping they ll serve McDonald s he reported the outlet Sherwood Related Here s How Much the Guests at Trump s Crypto Summit Donated to His Inauguration The involvement of Ogle and Ice highlights one feature of the dinner that has largest part angered critics Trump has so far yet to release a guest list and the inhabitants has only learned the true identities of members of a pseudonymous leaderboard in dribs and drabs Ogle s involvement was grating for Murphy the Democratic senator He wears a mask all the time He says he ll take the mask off when he meets with Donald Trump But he has supposedly spent millions of dollars getting access to the president nowadays Murphy disclosed Vincent Liu Sheldon Xia Kain Warwick and Oh Sang-Rok Foreign Crypto Company Executives Independent analyses of the TRUMP coin s leaderboard have ascertained that multiple of the top holders are based abroad and the identities made populace of several leaders have so far lined up with that prediction Vincent Liu Sheldon Xia Kain Warwick and Oh Sang-rok are the founders of crypto companies with headquarters or operations in Taiwan the Cayman Islands Australia and South Korea respectively according to various reports The British algorithmic crypto trading company Wintermute is also reportedly a large holder of TRUMP coins although it has not approved those reports or whether it will send a representative to the dinner Norm Eisen a former ethics adviser to Barack Obama who has become a fierce critic of Trump with the group Democracy Defenders Action described NPR that he saw Trump s meme coin as an unprecedented opportunity for foreign interests to buy influence with the president Foreigners and foreign governments are going to take advantage of that situation to put money in expecting things in return he mentioned Murphy speculated that the attendees could be sanctions targets Persian Gulf princes or representatives of Vladimir Putin The coin s website says that attendees will have to pass a background check Morten Christensen a Lucky Crypto Trader Morten Christensen narrated Bloomberg News that he spent only on a series of clever trades with friends that earned him a spot at the dinner which used a time-weighted formula of TRUMP coin holders to determine who was invited Christensen who runs a website tracking the giveaways used to promote new digital tokens cast his trip to the Trump golf class as something of a lark It s more like a fun trip with your friends to meet the president he communicated Bloomberg If we ll get to meet his son Barron it will be amazing Vincent Deriu a -Year-Old Trump-Loving Consultant Another lucky ticket winner was Vincent Deriu a young consultant who reported the Wall Street Journal that he spent buying TRUMP tokens Deriu advised the outlet he voted for Trump and often wears Trump-themed watches On X he cast himself as a relatively small investor I m one of the outliers just a normal guy not a whale he reported He also posted an enthusiastic message when he received an invite to the dinner We re IN LFG The post Who s on the Guest List for Trump s Meme Coin Dinner appeared first on The Intercept
