President Donald Trump and his team pulled in nearly $900,000 in trading fees over just two days through the $TRUMP crypto token

The cash came flooding in after an announcement on Wednesday that the top 220 holders of $TRUMP would win a black-tie optional dinner with him

President Donald Trump and his team pulled in nearly $900,000 in trading fees over just two days through the $TRUMP crypto token, according to blockchain data firm Chainalysis.

The cash came flooding in after an announcement on Wednesday that the top 220 holders of $TRUMP would win an optional black-tie dinner with him on May 22 at his private club near Washington, D.C.

The event promises a special reception for the top 25 token holders, and the website also promotes a “VIP White House Tour” the following day. An active leaderboard is keeping track of the usernames as buyers scramble to get a seat.

The $TRUMP coin, already a meme-heavy asset, saw its price rocket up more than 50% after the dinner contest announcement, pushing its total market value to $2.7 billion.

The president’s political rivals immediately slammed the move.

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, posted on X that the sale was “the most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done. Not close.”

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) are calling on the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to investigate whether a tokenized dinner with President Donald Trump for top buyers of the $TRUMP coin would violate government anti-corruption rules.

In a joint letter to the ethics agency, the senators expressed concern that the event, announced Wednesday by Trump’s team, could be seen as an attempt to sell government access in return for financial contributions, a practice known as pay-to-play corruption.

“The president is attempting to monetize his office by offering a private dinner to the 220 people who buy the most of a new crypto token,” said Schiff, a member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 8th Capitol attack.

“In the same post in which he announces this crypto token contest, he also touts his role in delivering economic prosperity for the country. This is the essence of pay-to-play corruption.”

The Trump Organization and its affiliates currently hold about 80% of the $TRUMP token supply, according to information available on the project’s website. Since the launch of the token in January, approximately $324.5 million in trading fees has been collected.

Each time a trade occurs, a portion of the transaction is sent directly to wallets managed by the individuals behind the token, as stated on the same website. Chainalysis can confirm that this setup continues to funnel money into wallets linked to the project’s creators.

The majority of tokens are subject to a three-year vesting plan, which will see them released gradually to prevent a sudden sell-off, also known as a “rug pull,” a common tactic in crypto. These lockups are designed to build trust by ensuring that insiders cannot quickly cash out and negatively impact the token’s price.

However, even the lockup period for the tokens is being used to incentivize buying in the $TRUMP coin. Top spenders on the token will be rewarded with a hangout at Trump’s private club, where he’ll be joined by members of his administration.

The event will take place on May 22 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C., and it will include a special reception for the top 25 token buyers. The following day, they’ll be invited for a VIP tour of the White House.

A copy of the email invitation to the dinner, viewed by NBC News, shows that the event will begin with a cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 21. Afterward, there will be a dinner in the club’s main ballroom.

The invitation also includes a note about an optional black-tie dress code for the dinner.

A glance at the $TRUMP coin leaderboard shows that the top buyer has already spent over $1 million on the token, scrambling to reach the 220 threshold for a dinner with the president.

The $TRUMP coin, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, is largely used for trading on decentralized exchanges. These platforms allow users to interact with cryptocurrencies without the need for intermediaries like traditional exchanges.

Due to the nature of decentralized exchanges, users are not required to provide personal details for registration, and the vast majority of trades occur using crypto wallets. This setup makes it difficult to identify individuals involved in large trades.

However, the $TRUMP coin project has chosen to display the usernames of the top spenders on the token, presenting a unique opportunity to observe the competition among buyers.

Among the top 220 token buyers, at least one is known to be an active user of Binance, a foreign crypto exchange that ceased operations in the U.S. earlier this year. The presence of a top spender with an active account on a banned exchange could raise