Hundreds of the top investors in President Donald Trump's cryptocurrency meme coin will descend on Washington Thursday for an exclusive black-tie dinner with the president

Two hundred and twenty cryptocurrency traders, including many from overseas, pumped tens of millions of dollars into Trump's meme coin to gain admission to the gala

The president is expected to speak at the event, which is being held Thursday night at Trump's private golf club in Northern Virginia.

A new analysis from the data analytics firm Nansen suggests that the top 220 investors in Trump's meme coin -- known as $TRUMP -- have collectively spent an estimated $140 million to attend the gala.

At least 20 of the top 25 investors appear to be foreign-based, according to analysis from the left-leaning nonprofit research group Accountable.US.

Among those expected to attend are an Australian entrepreneur, a New York-based crypto enthusiast, and Justin Sun, a controversial Chinese crypto mogul who has brokered deep business ties with the Trump family. In addition to his multimillion-dollar investment in $TRUMP, Sun has also invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial, another Trump-backed crypto venture. One month after that investment, SEC lawyers under the Trump administration moved to halt an alleged fraud case against Sun.

On X, Sun wrote that he was "Honored to support @POTUS" and "excited to connect with everyone, talk crypto, and discuss the future of our industry" at the gala. Sun has not responded to inquiries from ABC News.

Trump's meme coin was launched in January, on the eve of his inauguration, and the coin's value immediately soared past $75 per token. But the coin suffered a precipitous drop in the ensuing weeks, bottoming out in April at around $7.

That's when the May 22 gala was announced, framed online as an "intimate private dinner" at Trump's private golf club in Northern Virginia, where top investors in $TRUMP would "hear first-hand President Trump talk about the future of crypto." The top 25 investors would also receive a "special VIP tour" and an exclusive reception with the president before the dinner.

By the following day, the value of the coin ballooned by more than 55%. It then proceeded to fluctuate as those looking to secure admission to the gala bought up the coin and others looking to profit off the hype sold the token.

As investors jockeyed for a spot on the venture's online leaderboard, the top 220 collectively spent an estimated $140 million for a seat at the table on Thursday, according to an analysis by the data analytics firm Nansen.

Several investors said the opportunity to rub shoulders with the commander-in-chief -- and, in some cases, promote their business before the most powerful man in the world -- was worth the price of admission.

Cherry Hsu, an executive at a Singapore-based blockchain startup called MemeCore, said the company's co-founder, known online as "Ice," would attend the gala on the firm's behalf after MemeCore finished second in the competition. Hsu told ABC News that "Ice" was eager to speak with Trump about "balancing regulation with decentralization" in cryptocurrencies, and that their major investment in Trump's meme coin was directly tied to the opportunity to interact with the president.

"We want to sit next to Trump, if possible," she said. "I think it will be interesting."

Like "Ice," most of the other gala attendees remain shrouded in mystery -- their identities hidden behind three-or four-letter pseudonyms connected to their cryptocurrency wallets -- and appear to be located outside the United States. At least 20 of the top 25 investors appear to be foreign-based, according to analysis from the left-leaning nonprofit research group Accountable.US.

It remains unclear exactly how much Trump stands to profit from his meme coin. Data analysts suggest that the coin's owners, which includes an LLC that has been owned wholly by Trump, have already made millions of dollars in transaction fees. One estimate using data from the analytics firm Flipside said Trump and his partners have made about $3 million in transaction fees.

And while the Trump family and his partners may have benefitted financially, most $TRUMP investors have lost out. According to CNBC's reporting of blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis' data, 58 wallets had made millions from their Trump coin investments as of May 6 -- while roughly 764,000 crypto wallets had lost money.

Another analysis by Nansen suggests that more than 70% of the token holders have incurred losses totaling approximately $21 million since Trump announced the gala competition, including one unidentified investor who lost $2.5 million.

Once a crypto skeptic, Trump has in recent years fully embraced cryptocurrency both for his personal businesses and as a part of his administration's policy platform, declaring himself the "Crypto President" and launching an overhaul of the U.S. regulatory and enforcement posture toward digital currencies.

"The entire crypto enforcement program at the Securities Exchange Commission has been absolutely demolished," former SEC attorney John Reed Stark said on ABC News' This Week