Author: Kaori, Rhythm
Editor | Sleepy.md
8000 dollars.
If you want to appear at the banquet at Trump's Mar-a-Lago last weekend, you only need to spend 8000 dollars.
In January 2025, Trump issued a meme coin named after himself. Five months later, he announced that the top 220 holders of the coin could attend a dinner at his golf club. This coin transformed from an on-chain speculative asset into a ticket to meet the President of the United States.
In March 2026, the TRUMP coin fell below 3 dollars, down 96% from its peak, but Trump's team announced a second gathering for coin holders. The date was April 25, with a total of 297 spots available.
A crypto fund manager, bigsong, saw the business behind this banquet.
The Ceiling of Scalpers
bigsong has three partners running a crypto fund called Saucerful Labs, typically engaging in cyclical trading, DeFi wealth management, and quantitative arbitrage. After the news of the TRUMP coin dinner was announced, his first reaction was to short, and after the price rose 50%, it fell back, allowing the shorts to profit.
But while looking for exit strategies, bigsong remembered an old story.
Last year, one of his partners, luolan, tried to participate in the ranking of coin holders for the dinner in 2025 and sold the entry right for 30,000 dollars after qualifying. He shared this experience with his team, believing it was a good opportunity for arbitrage across different circles.
"Everyone thought it was very difficult to be in the top 297 of the Trump coin," bigsong said, "but it actually isn't."
Trump's banquet team is run by his long-time business partner Bill Zankel. The top 297 on-chain addresses holding coins will receive entry eligibility for the Mar-a-Lago banquet. The ranking is not based on the amount of coins held, but on points. Each coin generates one point per hour; the earlier you deposit and the more you deposit, the higher your points.
Points are only counted based on the holdings in on-chain addresses and Robinhood accounts; holdings on other exchanges do not count. This means the actual number of addresses participating in the ranking competition is much lower than the total number of TRUMP coin holders. Additionally, since points are a function of time, the earlier you enter, the greater the advantage.
After estimating, bigsong's team immediately held a project meeting. Their strategy was to borrow some TRUMP coins from lending platforms, while hedging the price risk with contracts. By doing this, they virtually took on no risk from price fluctuations, only paying interest on the loans and hedging costs.
They developed an AI program to monitor price fluctuations and borrowing health factors to prevent liquidation. They wrote scripts to monitor any abnormal withdrawals from each wallet, analyzed all competitors' addresses on-chain, their holdings, and estimated points, creating a real-time ranking dashboard. They even scanned social media every 24 hours to summarize community discussions, media reports, and new updates from official Twitter accounts.
During this time, the $TRUMP team delayed the point settlement time by four days, meaning more funds would flow into the point system. Some of bigsong's clients even rushed to accumulate points to secure entry rights due to this rule change.
This was not an isolated case; crypto investor Christensen purchased tokens within the exchange while shorting $TRUMP to hedge risk, and the entire operation only cost 500 dollars.
This is a precision production line, with the product being eligibility to meet the President of the United States. Ultimately, out of 297 spots, bigsong's team secured 40.
They priced the entry tickets at 8000 dollars.
If the production phase is like an on-chain war of a quantitative fund, then the sales phase is like a micro-business conference.
bigsong divided the sales into two phases. In the first phase, he sought out super agents with social distribution capabilities. He provided them with scripts, promotional images, and even created a special webpage. In the second phase, about five days before the registration deadline, he began promoting within the crypto circle.
All 40 tickets were sold, including international students studying in the U.S., socialites from Hong Kong and Taiwan, young entrepreneurs, and family groups bringing along older relatives.
One person, who had just taken a photo outside Mar-a-Lago four months ago and posted "Who can take me inside to have a look," found bigsong through three layers of intermediaries four months later.
"I really like my buyers," bigsong said, "they're basically all ambitious people. I also helped them fulfill their wishes through my capabilities. If nothing goes wrong, I should be the top scalper in the country, selling the opportunity to meet the President."
Selling the tickets does not mean the business is over; every buyer must undergo a security review by a third-party security company commissioned by the Secret Service and Trump's team. This process involves collaboration between three parties: the TRUMP coin team is responsible for confirming coin holding eligibility, the third-party security company handles background checks, and Mar-a-Lago is in charge of event organization.
bigsong’s team needs to process each client's review process one by one. The after-sales service takes up a lot of the team's energy, and the paperwork is comparable to applying for top universities for 40 potential international students simultaneously. Once a review is passed, clients are quickly notified; if not, supplementing materials and back-and-forth communication ensues.
Some people who paid suddenly decided not to go, initiating the refund process, but the intermediary fee had already been distributed to lower-level agents, making it unrecoverable. Some bought tickets through secondary or even tertiary distributors, leading to refund disputes becoming exceptionally complicated within the multi-layered distribution network.
"We completely underestimated the difficulty of after-sales," bigsong said. He is a quantitative trader, accustomed to working with numbers. But this business dragged him into a traditional commercial world with upstream and downstream, customer service, and dispute resolution.
However, from the official perspective, bigsong does not exist. His 40 clients appear on the review list as 40 unrelated individuals.
The Most Unique Business Conference
On April 25, 2026, Saturday. 297 top holders of the TRUMP coin, or at least those recognized as top holders by the points ranking system, gathered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The event was packaged as an all-day crypto and business summit, organized by Fight Fight Fight LLC, with a tagline on the promotional page: "The most unique crypto and business conference in the world."
Kathy Wood was present the entire afternoon, engaging with attendees, and boxing champion Mike Tyson gave a keynote speech, followed by bestselling author Tony Robbins.
Paul L. Aldoino, the CEO of the stablecoin giant Tether, who has rarely appeared in public over the years, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with coin holders on the lawns of Mar-a-Lago. Also present were venture capital patriarch Tim Draper, a16z's Arianna Simpson, Upbit founder Song Zhiheng, and Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley, bringing the power structure of the crypto world directly into this Palm Beach private estate.
Trump delivered a 45-minute keynote speech at the event. Just a few minutes before the speech began, he had canceled the U.S. negotiation team's trip to Pakistan for Iranian peace talks.
He spoke on the mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies, that banks should not obstruct the legislative process for stablecoins, artificial intelligence, the war with Iran, and even on Trump-branded sneakers.
Throughout the entire speech, he never mentioned his meme coin.
A participant named Turbo, a student studying in the U.S. and involved in crypto investments at IOSG Ventures, found his most memorable part of the event not to be the President but Tony Robbins.
Robbins walked off the stage, weaving through small round tables, just half a meter away from Turbo. He talked about AI, Crypto, and robots. When he discussed Crypto, Turbo felt Robbins didn't quite grasp it, yet he had a deeper understanding than the average person, and a shallower one than specialists. This positioning is precisely the most communicable.
"Many CEOs of large companies no longer conduct frontline research, so they sit down and listen to Robbins speak, who talks with the most seasoned individuals in each industry, bringing information to these CEOs; then he writes books, delivering this information to the public. A bestselling author, resource integrator, and top speaker rolled into one. He was the best speaker I have ever listened to live," Turbo said.
So Worth It
Sherry is one of the "super agents" referred to by bigsong. She works in New York and sold 6 tickets through her channels, including one to an elder who has lived in the U.S. for many years.
She never thought she would meet Trump in real life, “Security is much stricter since Trump was shot at.”
But Sherry did the math; Mar-a-Lago is a members-only club, with an annual fee of 500,000 dollars a few years ago, and membership must be recommended by existing members. Even having a member take you for a meal would cost thousands of dollars. Appearing before the President for 8000 dollars is "so worth it!"
After paying, they began to wait.
The registration window was only three days. On April 14, rankings were locked, and registration ended on the 17th. The information required included name, date of birth, current address, nationality, and social media accounts—LinkedIn, Instagram, and even Xiaohongshu were acceptable.
However, among the 6 people, two did not pass the review for a long time. With less than two days before the event, no one had booked flights yet.
On the evening of the 23rd, the last person's review finally cleared. Sherry and her companions immediately booked flights and hotels, flying from New York to Florida. This was their first time at Mar-a-Lago, their first time meeting the President of the United States.
On the morning of the 25th at 6:30, Sherry arrived early with 6 people, but two of them did not receive the entry QR codes. The event started at 8, and Sherry talked with the organizers for 30 minutes on-site. She gave her names, and everyone was in the system; the staff checked IDs and verified one by one, ultimately securing entry eligibility.
bigsong also had other clients facing the same issue. Sherry created a WeChat group before the event, gathering the Chinese faces present. She told bigsong that anyone without a received QR code should come to her so she could help them communicate with the organizers.
"If one person approaches the organizers, they might not take it seriously, but if a group speaks up, it draws attention and speeds up processing."
This group later became the largest Chinese community at the event, with 90 people.
bigsong was responsible for production and sales, while Sherry took on the role of organizer on-site voluntarily.
In this on-site group, people posted real-time information on Tyson's whereabouts, where Kathy Wood was situated, and where to capture good photos. She helped strangers take pictures together and directed them. Sherry ended up being the person who took the most group photos.
Besides the excitement and celebrity photoshoots, attendees like Sherry found networking with these individuals to be the most worthwhile aspect of the event.
Turbo observed that the attendees divided into three categories; some sat quietly to listen to the speeches, others engaged occasionally, while the more passionate ones sought out guests to chat and explore collaboration opportunities. "Everyone had different purposes for coming here; some just treated it as entertainment, a way to prove their identity."
He also felt a cultural shock. The entire Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, and Trump team's atmosphere exuded a "very traditional white culture," which was completely different from the Democratic-oriented events he attended in New York.
"Don't you think this is a top social stage for a new generation of young people?" Sherry felt exactly the opposite. "We are appearing before the President and these investment titans as young faces. Previous old immigrants have never had such opportunities?"
Sherry shared on social media about her attendance at this event, and everyone acknowledged it. She said what everyone recognized was not the coin but the very fact that these young Chinese people appeared in such a setting, reflecting their understanding of politics, interaction with the President, and their presence on the social stage.
Throughout the entire speech, Trump never mentioned his meme coin. Sherry found this unsurprising, "If you were the owner of a coin, would you publicly pitch it? Even heads of publicly listed companies cannot openly promote their stocks, and the President certainly cannot."
However, her judgment of the coin itself is different from her judgment of this event, "This coin itself has no value; all air coins hold no value."
So what did she buy?
"The resources behind it, the social connections and networks," Sherry said, "Everyone buys this coin; there’s no need for further explanation; people will think we are part of the same circle. Moreover, he can provide exclusive resources; the event is at Mar-a-Lago, which ordinary people cannot access."
After the Event
At the event, attendees received a bag of Trump-branded merchandise, which included perfume, a red Fight Fight Fight watch, a commemorative trading card, and a poster. As soon as Sherry posted a picture of her watch, an elder pre-ordered it, saying, "Be sure to save it for me."
The organizers also launched a mobile game called Trump's Billionaire Club and a membership program called $TRUMP Coin Club on-site, promising to provide coin holders with luxurious boxes for top global sporting events, private dinners, and elite, extraordinary experiences.
That same evening, Trump rushed back to Washington to attend the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Gunfire suddenly erupted at the scene. Sherry humorously remarked, "Many people got confused, thinking something happened at the Mar-a-Lago event, but no one came to offer condolences; they were only concerned about how the President was doing."
Within a few hours after the event ended, the TRUMP coin fell by 14%, dropping to 2.56 dollars.
According to Forbes estimates, by April 2026, trading fees from the TRUMP coin had generated nearly 400 million dollars in revenue for Trump-affiliated entities. The coin's price has declined by 96% from its peak; his family entities control 80% of the coin’s supply, but the profit-making machine has not stopped for a single day.
Data from analysis firm Nansen indicated that the 297 attendees held a total of about 29 million dollars in TRUMP coin this year, compared to 148 million dollars held by 220 people last year. The median holding for last year's VIPs was 3.28 million dollars, while this year it was 539,000 dollars, an 84% decrease. Many people sold off their holdings immediately after the points window closed.
"Last year's buyers held onto their purchases, driving a sustained increase," Nansen's report stated. "This year's points ranking created temporary price spikes, but this demand wasn't sustainable."
Buyers are becoming more savvy; they are not investing in a coin but purchasing a ticket for entry.
Returning to bigsong's business, he applied a set of quantitative trading methodologies, integrating a traditional scalping distribution chain to turn the act of "meeting the President of the United States" into a standardizable deliverable product.
If you are someone from a traditional industry, what way could you meet the President of the United States?
"Either you are a politically influential figure who already has the qualification to meet him. Or you are a top industry giant in some field, obtaining a face-to-face opportunity through business relationships, charity dinners, or policy lobbying channels. Or you attend campaign rallies, where the President stands on a distant stage giving a speech, and you crowd among countless heads below. You indeed see him, but he is up there, and you are down here; the distance between you is physical and structural."
bigsong uses such examples to illustrate the value of his business, while Sherry fills in the missing link of this business on the other side of the globe—organization and community.
"They held one last year as well, but after the event, everyone was scattered," Sherry said. She wants to continue the community established this time, providing experience sharing and organizational support for the next event. "Future participants will know that there is this organization, and they can ask any questions related to the event, unlike us this time who had to rely on ourselves to figure things out."
Turning the eligibility to meet the President into an on-chain points game will certainly lead to people conducting quantitative analysis, financial engineering, and multi-level distribution. bigsong and Sherry are merely local distributors of this system in the Chinese market.
Trump’s business partner Zankel said he wants to persuade the President to hold an event every six months. Next year, bigsong might also offer "all-inclusive packages," not only helping ticket buyers obtain points rankings but also assisting coin holders in passing security checks. In Sherry's group, some have already begun reserving tickets for next year. The supply and demand sides are synchronously upgrading, forming a complete industrial chain from production, sales, after-sales, to repurchase.
The person behind it all has seen his wealth triple over the past year.
Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren, Adam Schiff, and Richard Blumenthal co-signed a letter to Zankel in early April, accusing the event of reflecting the President's willingness to exploit his position for personal gain, to which Zankel did not respond.
Two hundred years ago, 20,000 people flooded into the White House during Andrew Jackson's inauguration for free to shake the President's hand, smashing china and forcing Jackson to escape through the side door. Supreme Court Justice Story wrote a worried remark: "The reign of the King of the Mob seems to have arrived."
If he were to see the Mar-a-Lago of April 2026, with 297 tickets, on-chain points rankings, 8000-dollar scalper prices, and a 90-person WeChat group, he would probably add, "The King of the Mob has not disappeared; he has just learned to set prices."
Moreover, within the King's pricing system, middlemen, agents, and private domain operators have also emerged.
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