Crypto
People walk past an advertisement feature Donald Trump with...
Ad showing Donald Trump with bitcoin (May James/Getty Images)
“Have FUN!”

As competition to be a top $TRUMP holder ends, the meme coin launches loyalty program, reward points

Details about what the new $TRUMP points program entails are scant.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

The competition to win a dinner at the Trump National Golf Club in Washington, DC, on May 22 for the top 220 holders of the trump token is over. In a post on X, the @GetTrumpMemes account said, “If you were in the top 220 on the leaderboard, check the email you signed up with for details on the Dinner with President Trump as soon as possible.”

Additional prizes were also revealed yesterday and include “a TRUMP DIAMOND HAND limited edition TRUMP SOLANA NFT. Very Special and Rare.”

The post also announced new $TRUMP endeavors: a loyalty program and reward points. Details are scant on the official website, with one line saying, “Connect your wallet NOW and get TRUMP Points IMMEDIATELY! Join the Trump Community! Have FUN!”

The dinner has brought the ire of Democrats, with many, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, arguing that the dinner might violate government ethics requirements and facilitate “financial transactions with foreign nationals under federal prosecution.”

Last week, a Bloomberg analysis showed that all but six of the top 25 holders are foreign. A report from New York Magazine identifies some of the “winners” who will be at the dinner, which include controversial crypto figure Justin Sun, who has also invested heavily in the Trump-linked World Liberty Financial project.

“The prevalence of these likely foreign buyers echoes concerns that congressional Democrats have expressed about the ethics of marketing the coin with a promise of presidential access,” Bloomberg reported.

$TRUMP, with a $2.5 billion market cap, was launched on the eve of the presidential inauguration. Since then, it has enjoyed some spikes, namely around Inauguration Day and after the “exclusive dinner” announcement, but the token is down 75% since its all-time high on January 19.

Harrison Seletsky, director of business development at SPACE ID, warned about the meme coin frenzy that has returned since the global tariff de-escalation.

He noted that over the last seven days, the market cap of the meme category on CoinGecko has increased 36%, while some, like Solana’s MOODENG, have exploded by 530% in just a week.

“For every success story, there are thousands of horror stories. So, anyone looking to speculate on meme coins must be incredibly careful — remember you’re buying an asset with no intrinsic value. If the only thing driving the price is hype, then the pump will almost certainly be very short-lived,” Seletsky added.

Indeed, a report from the Washington Post focusing on $TRUMP buyers found that at least 67,000 completely new or beginner crypto investors bought Trump’s meme coin, but they almost all bought the coin near its peak price and 80% have lost money on their investment. 

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Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, puts plans for IPO on hold

Payward, crypto exchange Kraken’s parent company, has paused its plans for an initial public offering until market conditions improve, according to a report from CoinDesk that cited two people with knowledge of the matter. 

Since the firm announced in November its preparation for an IPO of its common stock, the total market capitalization of the crypto industry has shed around $652.2 billion, from $3.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion as of Wednesday, data from CoinGecko shows. 

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

The news comes two weeks after Kraken received approval for a master account from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, allowing the crypto exchange to connect to the Fed’s payment infrastructure used by traditional banks and credit unions. 

Last year, Kraken raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation from institutional investors such as Jane Street and Citadel Securities.

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SEC and CFTC issue new guidance on how securities laws apply to crypto assets

On Tuesday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, together with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, issued an interpretation clarifying how federal securities law applies to crypto assets, a first step toward developing a clearer regulatory framework. 

The interpretive guidance introduces a token taxonomy for different types of cryptocurrencies, with SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins adding that “most crypto assets are not themselves securities.”

Examples of a digital commodity, “a crypto asset that is intrinsically linked to and derives its value from the programmatic operation of a crypto system that is ‘functional,’” include:

The guidance also includes definitions of digital collectibles (such as NFTs), stablecoins, digital tools, and digital securities (such as tokenized real-world assets and stocks).

This is a monumental step in the mainstream adoption of the industry and clears a hurdle in how crypto can operate going forward, according to David Pakman, head of venture investments at CoinFund. “This will allow new token designs with the confidence that their existence does not require registration with the SEC, etc.,” Pakman told Sherwood News.

Despite the clarification efforts from the two organizations, the market capitalization of the crypto industry has dropped about 2% in the last 24 hours as each of the tokens mentioned in the guidance are trading lower in the period, data from CoinGecko shows.

The joint agency action also complements congressional efforts to turn a crypto market structure framework into law. With the goal of providing regulations on the offer and sale of digital commodities, the CLARITY Act passed the House of Representatives last year and is now sitting in the Senate.

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