Foreign money is pouring into president Donald Trump's meme coin, $TRUMP, and the list of buyers includes powerful governments

Billions are being pushed into this token by entities from China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, just as Trump sits in the White House and his family runs the coin's business.

President Donald Trump’s meme coin, $TRUMP, is being targeted by foreign money in a desperate bid to get closer to the White House, and the list of buyers includes powerful governments and secretive companies.

Billions are being poured into this token by entities from China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, just as Trump sits in the White House and his family runs the coin’s business.

According to The New York Times, the biggest chunk of money—$2 billion—is being put up by a firm backed by the United Arab Emirates. That same week, a barely functioning Chinese firm announced it had secured $300 million to load up on $TRUMP, even though it hasn’t made a single dollar in revenue from the TikTok store it operates.

And none of this is happening in the open. Every move is being funnelled through tax havens like the British Virgin Islands, leaving Washington scrambling to understand the scale of influence being purchased through crypto.

China-linked tech company wants $300 million in Trump coin

The company is called GD Culture Group, and it trades on the Nasdaq even though its filings show it has just eight employees and failed to generate any money last year. On Monday, the firm said it would use $300 million raised by a British Virgin Islands investor to buy Bitcoin and $TRUMP. The plan was later confirmed in a public SEC filing.

Greater China Culture Group is also known to be investing in a new donut shop chain. Image Credit: Greater China Culture Group

GD Culture Group is tied to Shanghai Xianzhui, a Chinese subsidiary that admitted in March that its business could be “influenced” by the Chinese government. That detail alone has sent red flags through the ethics community because this would be the first known example of a Chinese-connected company buying into Trump’s personal coin.

To make matters even stranger, the coin buy announcement came just as Trump is negotiating whether TikTok should be banned in the United States. TikTok, of course, is owned by the Chinese government, and it’s the same app where GD Culture’s failing store operates. That means a struggling Chinese-tied firm is lining up to buy a president’s crypto, while he decides the future of the platform it relies on.

Former House Ethics Committee chair Charles Dent said the situation was “completely out of bounds,” adding that these governments were “obviously” trying to get close to the president. The company itself didn’t respond to any questions.

After the announcement, shares of GD Culture Group surged 12%, before dropping again. It’s still unclear if the company will follow through on the full purchase or how much money it actually received from the British Virgin Islands investor. The firm was already facing a Nasdaq delisting notice for failing to meet financial standards.

Trump’s coin opens the door to foreign cash and influence

Senator Christopher Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, spent 20 minutes on the Senate floor on Tuesday discussing how all this money is going into the Trump family’s pockets.

“I know Trump’s crypto scams can seem hard to understand,” said Murphy. “A foreign government is investing $2 billion in Trump’s coin to get favorable treatment from the Administration. A wild corruption.”

According to the Senator, the biggest chunk of money in $TRUMP is being invested by an entity linked to the United Arab Emirates. That same week, a Chinese subsidiary of a company listed on the Nasdaq announced it had secured $300 million to buy more of the token.

However, the full scope of foreign involvement in $TRUMP is still largely unknown. Most of these investments are being channeled through opaque offshore vehicles in the British Virgin Islands, making it difficult to identify the ultimate beneficiaries.

Among the other foreign transactions detected so far is a large-scale purchase by a Gulf-based real estate company that has ties to the Qatari government. Additionally, a Mexico-based shipping and logistics company called Fr8Tech, which has been making efforts to expand its footprint in the U.S. market, pledged $20 million to invest in $TRUMP.

Crypto analytics firm Nansen has identified several large buyers of $TRUMP in Mexico, Singapore, and Australia, and the president’s team is actively helping them, according to the Times.

Last month, Trump’s camp announced that the top 220 coin buyers would get an invitation to a dinner at his Virginia golf club. That news caused another wave of buying, sending the coin into another round of frenzied trading.

None of this money will be going to a bank account, which would be illegal. Foreign nationals can’t donate to political candidates or inaugural funds, according to federal law. But buying a coin isn’t covered by that law. That’s what makes Trump’s crypto business so powerful—it bypasses campaign finance law completely. It also explains why Trump has been dragging his feet when it comes to crypto regulation