Trump token jumps 10% as criticism of Thursday night's memecoin dinner intensifies

Whether you love him or hate him for it, the media storm gathered ahead of President Donald Trump holding a dinner for top holders of his official memecoin appears to be spurring the token higher.

Hours before over 200 of TRUMP memecoin holders sit down to dine with the president Thursday evening, the token was changing hands at $15.45, an increase of 10%, as of 3:35 p.m. ET, according to The Block's price data . That's the highest price for the token in about four weeks.

While TRUMP's price is on the upswing, considerations of whether the president has crossed a line by rewarding holders of his memecoin with a dinner show no sign of slowing down.

Trump's allies have said the president can't be bought while his press secretary stated on Thursday the Commander in Chief would be attending the dinner "in his personal time" when asked about who would be attending. Many have been curious to know who exactly earned the right to attend the memecoin dinner while reports have said in all likelihood the majority of top TRUMP holders are not U.S. citizens.

Top holders like Tron founder Justin Sun, Kronos Research CIO Vincent Liu , and BitMart founder Sheldon Zia appear to have all publicly displayed enthusiasm for being invited to the dinner.

"This is a personal dinner that the president is attending on his personal time," a White House official told CBS. "The [White House] has absolutely nothing to do with it. There will be no WH tours for any winners of the memecoin contest."

Unsurprisingly, Trump's detractors, including several Democratic lawmakers, have openly blasted the president for his memecoin, which launched in January and now has a market cap of over $3 billion. Even Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, a supporter of the president and a crypto-friendly lawmaker, has said the dinner gives her "pause."

Democrats introduce bill ahead of Trump dinner

On Thursday, Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, along with 14 other Democratic co-sponsors, introduced the "Stop Trading, Retention, and Unfair Market Payoffs in Crypto Act of 2025." The bill aims to ban the president, vice president, lawmakers, and immediate family members from "owning a proportion of a digital asset that would allow them to unilaterally make changes to the digital asset," among other requirements.

It's unlikely the bill will do more than grab headlines, given that both the House and Senate are controlled by Republicans.

President Trump's involvement in crypto has been, for months, drawing criticism. Besides the memecoin, both Trump and his sons are backers of the DeFi platform World Liberty Financial. Then, earlier this month, Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX said it would use World Liberty Financial's USD1 stablecoin to close a $2 billion deal with the crypto exchange Binance.

On Thursday, while SkyBridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci was on CNBC discussing crypto, the executive and former Trump White House official echoed what other prominent proponents of the digital assets sector have said when asked about the president's memecoin.

"It's probably inside the spirit of the law...the letter of the law, if you will," Scaramucci said when asked about Trump's memecoin dinner. "But it doesn't feel right to a lot of people and I think it gums up the works for crypto and makes people think of the unseemly side of the blockchain and crypto as opposed to the positives."