A very rich person in cryptocurrencies is negotiating with federal authorities to settle fraud charges. He says he is the owner of the most of President Trump’s memecoins and will be having a special dinner with the president this week.
Justin Sun is a crypto entrepreneur from China who was sued by the SEC in 2023. In a post on X, he said that he was the top holder of the $TRUMP-memecoins, which is a collectible token released by the president, and that he would be at the dinner on Thursday. Dozens of people who put a lot of money into the valuable token will be at the event at the president’s golf club in Virginia.
“Thank you, @GetTrumpMemes, for inviting me to President Trump’s Gala Dinner as his biggest fan! It’s an honour to support him!” Sun wrote on Monday night. “As the owner of the most $TRUMP, I can’t wait to meet everyone, talk crypto, and delve into the future of our field.”
video courtesy by Bloomberg Television !
The official backers of memecoins are paying for the dinner, which has been criticised by both Democrats and Republicans in Washington because they think that the organisers may have auctioned off access to Trump and that people may be there to make friends with the president. Two events are planned for today: a dinner for the top 220 memecoins investors and a secret party for the 25 biggest holders, which will include Sun. Trump is expected to attend both.
Concerns about a conflict of interest have been pushed down over and over by the White House in relation to the memecoin dinner. On Monday, a government source who did not want to be named said that the memecoin “has nothing to do with the White House. “Sun’s lawyers did not answer right away to requests for comment on Tuesday. When asked about Sun’s case at a congressional meeting on Tuesday, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said he didn’t know anything about it.
People often compare memecoins to Beanie Babies and baseball cards because they are a type of cryptocurrency that doesn’t have a real-world use. Trump’s $TRUMP memecoins came out just days before his inauguration. Eighty percent of it is still owned by an affiliate of the Trump Organisation and another company called Fight Fight Fight LLC.
People have thought for weeks that Sun holds the most $TRUMP memecoins, but he hadn’t confirmed this until his post on Monday. By taking the job, he is adding to the Trump family’s growing crypto company, which includes the digital assets business World Liberty Financial. He has a lot of money invested in the WLFI token from World Liberty Financial.
Records on the blockchain show that Sun’s crypto account had almost $20 million worth of the $TRUMP memecoin in it as of Tuesday afternoon. Sun’s digital asset businesses include Tron and BitTorrent. In 2023, the SEC sued Sun for selling crypto tokens that weren’t registered with the Wall Street agency. In court documents filed earlier this year, Trump’s SEC and Sun’s lawyers said they were working on “a possible resolution” of the case. This was happening at a time when the government was easing up on crypto enforcement in general.
The dinner for memecoins is happening at a time when Trump’s administration and lawmakers are starting to push through new rules for the crypto markets. The industry has been calling for these rules for a long time. The GENIUS Act, a major crypto bill that suggests rules for stablecoins (a type of crypto token whose value is tied to the U.S. dollar), was introduced by senators on Monday.
The fact that Sun has a stake in the memecoin was used by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the strongest opponents of the bill, to attack it. One day after the Senate passes the GENIUS Act, Justin Sun, a big investor in the Trump family’s crypto business, says he’s getting a special dinner as the President’s top crypto buyer. This was said by a Massachusetts Democrat in a statement to POLITICO. “Everyone needs to know that the GENIUS Act doesn’t stop this kind of corruption; it makes it legal.”
