Create an account to save your articles.Add on GoogleAdd Decrypt as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.U.S. President Donald Trump (center) with sons Donald Jr. (left) and Eric (right). Image: Decrypt/Shutterstock
In brief
Trump spent nearly an hour at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday speaking with top holders of his meme coin.
The president discussed the Iran war, crypto, China, and Joe Biden with a mostly foreign crowd of attendees.
The gathering came as Trump’s crypto ventures face growing scrutiny in Washington.
President Donald Trump on Saturday attended a conference for top holders of his meme coin, delivering off-the-cuff remarks for nearly an hour to an adoring crowd of crypto investors, tech executives, hedge fund managers, and MAGA diehards.
The event, held at Mar-a-Lago, landed as the Trump family’s sprawling crypto portfolio faces growing scrutiny on Capitol Hill, causing divisions even among Republicans as key crypto legislation stalls in Congress.
Yet the president appeared undeterred this weekend, indulging his crypto supporters with a splashy celebration thrown at the heart of his political empire.
Entrance to the crypto conference was granted only to the top few hundred holders of Trump’s meme coin. The token’s top 29 investors also gained access to an additional, VIP-only gathering with the president. Announcement of the event initially spiked the price of Trump’s meme coin, which trades as TRUMP, up from $2.93 to $4.37—an increase of almost 50%. But the coin has since dropped significantly in value, trading at just $2.51 at writing. The token is down over 96% since launching in January 2025.
Despite the token’s sagging price, conference attendees who spoke with Decrypt said they were generally pleased with the event—chiefly because it allowed them to visit Mar-a-Lago, a venue of great significance in Trumpworld.
It was also much less expensive to qualify for this gathering than last year’s inaugural Trump meme coin dinner. Many investors paid several million dollars a head to attend that initial event, hoping for a private audience with the most powerful man in the world.
Ultimately, though, Trump only delivered brief remarks at the dinner, held at his Virginia golf club, and did not spend any time in conversation with attendees. Pricing this time around seemed to adjust to those new expectations. One attendee of Saturday’s Mar-a-Lago conference told Decrypt he qualified to attend after purchasing just $3,000 worth of the president’s meme coin.
The attendee, who also went to last year’s meme coin dinner, said he preferred this year’s event—because of the Mar-a-Lago setting.
Multiple guests at Saturday’s meme coin conference described the crowd as predominantly foreign. Three guests told Decrypt that at least half of the attendees appeared to have flown in from Asia.
Decrypt reached out to the White House for a conference guest list but did not receive a response.
On Saturday afternoon, Trump first gathered briefly with the top 29 holders of his meme coin, riffing on favorite topics including crypto, AI, and his relationship with China and President Xi Jinping. Notably absent at the talk, according to multiple attendees, was Justin Sun—the controversial crypto entrepreneur who has historically been the top holder of the TRUMP token.
Escuchando a Trump: A la izquierda de @DiegoBartra_ Mike Tyson, a la derecha el creador de Chill Guy, a mi izquierda Tony Robbins, a mi derecha el fundador de Bybit, detrás mío Tim Draper, al otro lado el fundador de Tether, etc etc. Un momento que se sintió surreal. #trumpmemepic.twitter.com/z9VWZCka1I
Last week, Sun filed a lawsuit against the Trump family’s crypto platform, World Liberty Financial, and accused the company of misconduct. World Liberty representatives in turn accused Sun of misconduct. Last month, the SEC, chaired by Trump appointee Paul Atkins, moved to settle the entrepreneur’s yearslong fraud case—a decision that reportedly prompted the agency’s head of enforcement to resign shortly thereafter.
After speaking briefly in private with his top meme coin holders, the president then delivered off-the-cuff remarks to the entire conference for nearly 45 minutes. Attendees excitedly took selfies in front of Trump’s podium as the president discussed America’s ongoing war with Iran, crypto regulation, and former president Joe Biden, according to multiple attendees.
Trump joked that Iran doesn’t know who their leader is anymore—a common refrain of his in recent days—and also called Biden “the worst thing to ever happen to old people,” an oft-used jab which elicited the room’s largest laugh, according to attendees.
“It was the same old stuff,” one guest told Decrypt. “He repeats himself every speech—I could almost lipsync it.”
But Trump stayed “much longer” this time compared to last year’s meme coin dinner, the guest said—so it was hard to complain.
Immediately after finishing his speech, the president departed for Palm Beach International Airport. There, on the tarmac, when asked by Decrypt why he chose to attend his own meme coin conference, Trump opted not to discuss his personal crypto venture, but instead emphasized the importance of supporting the industry generally.
“I really feel I have an obligation as a president, I have to be able to make sure all of our industries do well,” the president said.
“Crypto’s a big industry,” he continued. “It’s actually become somewhat mainstream—the banks have it, people have it…. We’re leading China by a lot in AI, and we’re also leading in crypto.”
Trump then flew back to Washington to attend the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which a gunman would manage to infiltrate later that night.
Back at the conference, attendees listened to panels on neurotechnology and “resilience in sports and in life.” One audience member said their favorite speech of the day came not from the president, but from motivational speaker Tony Robbins, who urged the audience to either embrace AI agents or hard manual labor as technology reshapes the job market.
The audience member had previously tried to livestream Trump’s speech on his phone, but the stream was discovered by a Secret Service agent who shut it down—an experience that had the guest “pretty shaken up.”
After all speakers, including former boxer Mike Tyson, took the stage, the group then mingled at a poolside happy hour—which one attendee loved, but complained was too short.
Present for the whole day was Bill Zanker, the man at the center of Trump’s meme coin operation. Zanker, a longtime friend of the president—who has quarterbacked his branded shoe, watch, and NFT ventures—typically keeps a low profile. The businessman appeared to hitch a ride with Trump on Air Force One from Washington down to Mar-a-Lago Friday evening. When approached by Decrypt on the Palm Beach airport tarmac, Zanker walked away hurriedly and declined to be interviewed.
As we waited on the tarmac at PBI for President Trump to disembark AF1, I spotted Bill Zanker, the man at the center of Trump’s meme coin operation.
Zanker appears to have taken the trip down to Mar-a-Lago with us from DC, as he was snacking on commemorative AF1 m&ms while we… pic.twitter.com/yBx8lRT0Hw
But safe within the walls of Mar-a-Lago, Zanker took plenty of pictures with attendees on Saturday. At the meme coin conference, he barrelled ahead with unveiling his latest gamified offering for Trump meme coin devotees: a “Trump Club” for top token holders promising “invitation-only luxury suites at the biggest sporting events in the world, private dinners, and the most elite and extraordinary experiences.”
One Trump meme coin holder, who attended both last year’s and this year’s gatherings, told Decrypt he’s excited about the plan. He said he remains optimistic that the TRUMP token will one day climb back to previous highs—but that for now, he’s focused more on demonstrating his loyalty to the president.
“He doesn’t owe us anything,” the token holder, who has supported Trump since 2015, said. “If anything, we owe him.”
Daily Debrief Newsletter
Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.
DecryptDeep DivesLong ReadsInside Trump’s Meme Coin Bash: Foreign Guests, Iran War Riffs, and Mar-a-Lago Charm
