Crypto traders who won dinner with Donald Trump also made big profits

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Traders who won a ticket to a banquet with Donald Trump by entering a contest to buy large amounts of the president’s memecoin may have netted multimillion-dollar profits, a Financial Times analysis has revealed.

The competition, announced on April 23, offered dinner to people who held the largest quantities of the $TRUMP memecoin over a specified window in a publicly visible crypto wallet. The contest helped push the price of the token from $9.26 to $15.33 when it was announced.

Many traders started moving tokens out of their wallets as the window closed on May 12 and their place at the dinner at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia was confirmed — despite the contest website’s exhortation to “Hold Big. Hold Strong. Hold $TRUMP”.

The FT has identified that 16 of the 25 winning “VIP” accounts, which have been awarded seats at “an unforgettable Gala DINNER with the President” plus an “exclusive Reception . . . with YOUR FAVORITE PRESIDENT” and a VIP tour, now have no Trump coins left in their public wallets. The event is due to be held on May 22.

Trump has made crypto a major part of his second presidency, with his administration aiming to loosen digital asset rules and foster growth in the industry. His family is also involved in a broad range of crypto ventures.

Trump’s tokens have no other purpose beyond being a vehicle for speculation. The owners of the accounts are not known, although each has given their wallet a short nickname on the coin website.

Of the 25 VIPs, 22 only started accumulating $TRUMP after the contest was announced. Of these, five sold at a time that means they may have made profits from taking part in the contest. FT estimates suggest these gains may range from about $52,000 for an account known as “NACH” to $2.6mn potentially made by “Woo”.

It is not possible to prove whether all transfers in and out of the wallets were sales or the price at which they might have been sold. But the FT has estimated the market costs of assembling and selling these portfolios by assuming transactions involving the wallets took place at market prices from the time that they were transferred.

The account known as “Woo” placed 1mn $TRUMP tokens into a wallet just days before the contest close when they were worth $10.8mn. It then disposed of them when they would have been worth $13.3mn, permitting a potential profit of $2.6mn.

By contrast, the account known as “GAnt”, which also only filled a wallet during the competition period and then disposed of the holdings afterwards, may have spent about $1mn on winning their day out.

Three of the top 25 accounts were holders of $TRUMP before the competition launch. One, “ogle”, has potentially made $4mn from trading $TRUMP, but its wins were prior to the announcement of the dinner.

Another, named “SUN”, accrued about 1mn tokens before the competition. These included one purchase of 800,000 coins when they were priced at $61.13 — well above the current level of $12.96. At current prices, this account’s owner may be sitting on a $66mn loss.

However, as the largest holder of $TRUMP coins across the period of the contest, the owner of SUN will be one of four entrants entitled to a free watch.

It has been widely speculated in the crypto community that the SUN account is associated with Justin Sun, a Chinese crypto investor who has also put $75mn into World Liberty Financial, an unrelated Trump family crypto company. In addition to the account name linking Sun to the account, the wallet is tied to HTX, where he serves as an adviser.

Sun has declined to confirm to the FT whether it is his account.

In addition to the 25 VIP winners, a further 195 people have won the right to attend the “gala dinner”. FT analysis shows that 56 of these contest winners have emptied the wallets they submitted as part of their entry.

The Trump Organization did not respond to a request for comment.