Analysis: the majority of the top 220 holders of President Trump's memecoin likely reside outside the US, ahead of a May 22 dinner; Justin Sun likely holds $18M
The majority of top holders of Donald Trump's memecoin have used foreign exchanges that say they ban US users, suggesting many purchasers are based abroad
Bloomberg
Context & Ripple Effects
The planned May 22 dinner for the top 220 TRUMP holders turned token ownership into a route to a scarce, non-financial benefit. This analysis adds a material detail to that setup: the likely qualifying holder base is substantially international.
The prospective dinner’s qualifying cohort is now more clearly associated with foreign-exchange users, making its likely attendee and buyer base appear less US-centric than the event’s political setting.
Justin Sun’s estimated $18 million position makes him a specifically identified large holder whose stake is directly relevant to the token-based access mechanism.
Second-order effects
Exchanges whose stated restrictions exclude US users may face sharper questions about how their customer-location controls intersect with politically salient token activity.
The finding increases the importance of wallet and exchange analysis for assessing who can accumulate enough tokens to qualify for issuer-linked access, rather than treating token-holder rankings as self-explanatory.
Third-order effects
If tokens can repeatedly confer proximity to political or institutional figures, crypto-market transparency and eligibility controls may become central to the sector’s legitimacy debate, especially where ownership is concentrated and cross-border.
The episode is a test case for whether market-based access arrangements can remain separated from concerns over foreign participation and conflicts of interest; the corpus establishes the concern, not its eventual policy outcome.
The trend: Politically connected crypto assets are increasingly exposing the gap between pseudonymous, global ownership and demands for transparent, accountable access to public power.
NEW Bloomberg analysis: Most of the top holders of Trump's memecoin - who are vying for an “intimate dinner” with POTUS and a White House tour - are likely foreign. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
We're in a place where the government is grabbing $75-a-day laborers off the streets and sending them to Salvadoran death camps, but also high-fiving crypto con artists after they rip off billions from middle-class families.
Number of crypto wallets that made money on Trump's memecoin: 58. — Number that lost money: 764,000. — @cnbc.com @mackenziesigalos.bsky.social — www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/t...
764,000 fools easily parted from their money - 58 crypto wallets have made millions on Trump's meme coin. 764,000 have lost money, data shows www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/t...
764,000 deeply dark deplorable highly dopey MAGATs getting instantly screwed by a two-bit NYC conman rapist felon is music to my ears. — Do I care about those gullible MAGAT souls? F NO! — www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/t...
These have zero utility beyond funneling money to the president. This is a monumental level of corruption, even for him. — Chuck Schumer's next angry letter will probably out a stop to it, though. www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/t...
Trump's crypto venture is not just an appalling case of corruption. It's also a horrible investment — unless your only aim is to bribe the president in exchange for access. — So far 58 people have made millions, 764,000 have lost. — www.cnbc.com/2025/05/06/t...
A small group of traders made nearly $100mn by buying Melania Trump's memecoin just minutes before it was announced. — FT analysis by Eade Hemingway, @olihawkins.com, @chriscook.news and Paul Caruana Galizia, showed they moved early and sold fast — www.ft.com/content/f579... […