President Donald Trump’s meme coin is already a thing that shouldn't exist

President Donald Trump’s meme coin is already a thing that shouldn’t exist, much less as a vehicle for foreign entities to funnel money to the sitting president, yet here we are.

According to a Wednesday report from Bloomberg, over half of the top holders of $TRUMP — a personal cryptocurrency token established days before his inauguration — are likely foreign buyers, who have dumped millions into the project.

And likely not without motive. Last month, the token announced that Trump would be hosting an exclusive May 22 dinner for about 200 of $TRUMP’s largest investors at his Washington, D.C., golf club, leading to a flurry of purchases. According to Bloomberg, “76 percent of the token value held among the top 220 wallets likely belongs to foreign owners because the wallets used exchanges that are not available to U.S. residents.” According to a separate analysis by The Washington Post, roughly $100 million worth of tokens were purchased after the dinner was announced.

$TRUMP’s existence as a piggy bank through which so-far anonymous entities from across the globe can dump untold amounts of cash into the president’s coffers in exchange for exclusive access to his time is a pretty clear cut case of corruption. According to an analysis published by the Associated Press earlier this week, the coin has already generated over $320 million in transaction fees for its creators.

The president’s crypto coin is by no means a safe investment. A Tuesday report from NBC News found that of the approximately two million crypto wallets that purchased $TRUMP, around 764,000 lost money on their investment. Just 58 wallets account for roughly $1.1 billion in value gains, each making more than $10 million on their investment.

“The sitting president appears to be selling personal cryptocurrency while in office, granting access to people who buy it, and thereby enriching his business and his family. It’s gobsmacking,” Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) told Politico on Wednesday. “I'd like to hear one Republican senator defend it. Any self-respecting Congress would demand an accounting of everyone trading this coin who has any business before the government.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, issued letters to Fight Fight Fight LLC and World Liberty Financial — the two primary business entities of the Trump family’s growing crypto empire — notifying them that the committee is “conducting a preliminary inquiry into potential conflicts of interest and violations of the law from President Trump’s cryptocurrency venture.”

“Donald Trump is selling cryptocurrency like snake oil in the Wild West, and he's put a for sale sign on the White House for his meme coin. People in America deserve to know how he is potentially under the influence of foreign governments and investors who are buying his crypto assets,” Blumenthal told USA Today.

On Tuesday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) introduced the Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (MEME) Act, which would prohibit the president, vice president, other members of the executive branch and members of Congress and their families from launching meme coins or financially benefiting from other types of cryptocurrency schemes.

“Trump’s meme coin [is] the most unethical, most corrupt thing a president of the United States has ever done. It’s essentially a way for any corporate CEO, any Saudi prince, any foreign oligarch who has business before the Trump administration to send Trump money privately, secretly, and then whisper to the Trump administration about how much money they’ve sent and the favor that they need.

“No member of the executive branch, no member of Congress, should be able to profit off of their position — and certainly we shouldn't allow for these secret ways for very powerful, very rich people to be able to send money to a member of Congress or the President of the United States. This is a common sense bill and we should just get it done.”