The crypto grift call is coming from inside the (White) house

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United States President Donald Trump continues to make bank off his various digital asset ventures, the volume of which grows larger every day.

• Dem senators want ethics probe of Trump memecoin promos
• SEC and Binance extend legal pause as CZ meets with Trump offspring
• Trump’s ETF plans with Crypto.com now official
• Roger Ver’s six-figure pardon push

On April 25, two senior Democratic senators—Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)—sent a letter to Jamieson Greer, acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The letter asked Greer to open “an urgent inquiry” regarding Trump’s April 23 announcement of an “intimate private dinner” in Washington, D.C., on May 22 for the top 220 holders of his $TRUMP memecoin.

The announcement, made via the official website for $TRUMP and other Trump-related crypto ventures, promised these 220 holders the ability to “Hear First-Hand President Trump Talk about the Future of Crypto.” In addition, the top-25 $TRUMP holders will enjoy a “private VIP reception” with the president.

The site launched a new ‘leaderboard’ that tracks who owns how many $TRUMP tokens, just so everyone can see how many more tokens they need to buy to qualify for each event. The pitch urges users to “hold as much $TRUMP as you can” because “the more $TRUMP you hold—and the longer you hold it—the higher Your Ranking will be.”

The dinner will take place at “TRUMP’s Private Club,” which may be a reference to the new Georgetown-based ‘Executive Branch’ members-only club that imposes a $500,000 fee on those wanting to hobnob with Trump-linked elites, including Trump’s son, Don Jr.

The club’s owners include Don Jr. as well as Zach and Alex Witkoff, co-founders of another Trump crypto venture, the decentralized finance-focused (DeFI) World Liberty Financial (WLF). The club’s founding members include Trump’s ‘AI & Crypto Czar’ David Sacks and the Winklevoss twins behind the Gemini digital asset exchange.

The dinner announcement came shortly after the April 17 unlocking of 40 million additional $TRUMP tokens, boosting the number of circulating $TRUMP to 240 million. A maximum of one billion $TRUMP tokens have been minted, 80% of which are controlled by the team behind $TRUMP, including Trump family members. Prior to the unlock, it was estimated that the Trump team had already earned over $350 million in fees since the memecoin’s launch in mid-January.

While most unlocks of this magnitude cause token prices to decline—following the simple formula of supply of a utility-free token outpacing demand—the unlock caused a modest bump in $TRUMP’s price, adding a dollar to its then price of ~$7.50. But the announcement of the dinner/VIP event caused $TRUMP to jump to over $16, and while its fallen back a little since, the price is hovering around $14.50.

The Dem senators’ letter notes “Trump’s continued and concerning efforts to use his own name and likeness as President … for personal financial gain.” Additionally, the dinner/VIP invite “may implicate several federal ethics laws and constitutional prohibitions, including the federal bribery statute and emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution.”

The Washington Post reported that many of the top $TRUMP wallets appear to be controlled by non-Americans. Of the wallets that have registered for the dinner contest, the largest contains 1.1 million $TRUMP tokens and appears to be linked to Justin Sun, founder of the Tron network. Sun already spent $75 million buying WLF’s governance token WLFI, a gesture that resulted in his being named an WLF adviser.

The Dem senators cited the Post report, saying it raised “the troubling prospect that foreign actors are using the meme coin as a vector to buy influence with President Trump and his associates without needing to disclose their identities publicly.”

Sadly, this letter is an example of ‘sound and fury signifying nothing,’ as Greer is a Trump appointee who isn’t likely to bite the hand that feeds. Plus, the GOP controls all legislative levers of Washington power, leaving the Dems with little more than performative outrage with which to object to Trump’s naked cash grabs.

Speaking of, on April 28, Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) introduced articles of impeachment against the president, including “dismissing criminal cases, soliciting foreign emoluments, and extortionate settlements for personal and political gain.” Again, with the House of Representatives in GOP control, this is a purely symbolic non-starter.

CZ meets WLF execs; WLF signs Pakistan MOU

It’s not a dismissal of a criminal case, but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently asked a federal court for an additional 60-day ‘pause’ in its civil suit against the Binance exchange. The proceedings were initially paused in February when the SEC and Binance informed the court that an “early resolution” of the suit appeared likely. The new filing said the parties have had “productive discussions” regarding a mutually acceptable way out.

Given the number of crypto operators that have put money in Trump’s pocket and seen their legal difficulties come to an abrupt end, the fact that Binance has yet to obtain legal relief suggests something big is in the works, requiring more complex negotiations than normal.

Binance has been drawing ever closer to the Trump orbit since Trump’s election victory last November. Binance is said to be considering cutting the Trump family in for a slice of its U.S.-facing Binance.US exchange if the government lifts restrictions on its operations. More recently, Binance was said to be discussing listing Trump’s new USD1 stablecoin, a move that would dramatically expand the token’s reach and influence.

Also present at the WLF/CZ meeting was Bilal bin Saqib, CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC), a body to which CZ has been named a strategic advisor. On April 15, WLF named bin Saqib an advisor to WLF. On April 28, WLF announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the PCC, the details of which went unspecified.

Pakistani media reported that key aspects of the MOU involve regulatory sandboxes for blockchain financial product testing, DeFi protocols, tokenization of real-world assets and expanding stablecoin use for remittances and trade.

A delegation of WLF execs, including Zach Witkoff, Zachary Folkman, and Chase Herro, reportedly met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Information, and top military officials. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb hailed the MOU’s ability to open “new doors for investment, innovation and global leadership in the blockchain economy.”

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Trump ETFs are go!

On April 22, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) signed a binding agreement with the Crypto.com exchange and “America-first asset management firm” Yorkville America Digital to launch a series of Truth.Fi branded exchange-traded funds (ETF). (Yorkville is an offshoot of New Jersey-based Yorkville Advisors.)

TMTG and Crypto.com originally announced their ETF plans in late March, but the die is now officially cast for the ETFs to launch later this year (pending regulatory approval). The ETFs are expected to involve “digital assets as well as securities with a Made in America focus spanning diverse industries such as energy.”

The digital assets that go into these ETFs are expected to include BTC and CRO, the latter being the native token of the Crypto.com-linked Cronos Chain. Significant controversy was generated last month as Crypto.com announced plans to revive 70 billion CRO that were burnt in 2021, then put its thumb on the scale when the CRO community appeared uneager to approve this Lazarus-worthy revival.

The ETFs are part of a wave of crypto-focused products that TMTG is planning to release, including the launch of the Truth.Fi “financial services and FinTech brand incorporating America First investment vehicles.” These products will also include “a slate of Truth.Fi Separately Managed Accounts,” details of which remain sparse.

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‘Bitcoin Jesus’ hoping to rise from the dead

While CZ has yet to receive a pardon, some prominent crypto figures have already been so blessed by Trump, including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and the BitMex exchange founders. Freeing Ulbricht was a cause célèbre among the crypto set—and a Trump campaign promise—while BitMex appears to have greased these wheels via a ‘strategic partnership’ between Trump’s WLF and a company backed by BitMex co-founder Arthur Hayes.

Roger Ver appears to be taking a more roundabout means of bribing Trump. According to campaign finance disclosures, during the first quarter of 2025 Ver paid $600,000 to Drake Ventures, a limited liability company set up by longtime Trump confidante Roger Stone and Stone’s wife.

Ver was arrested in Spain in May 2024 on criminal charges of tax evasion related to Ver renouncing his U.S. citizenship a decade earlier. Ver has been fighting extradition ever since, including by releasing a cloying video intended to draw a direct line between Ver’s legal difficulties and those endured by Trump prior to his 2024 victory.

While Ver’s chances of receiving a Trump pardon appeared to have been shot down by Elon Musk in January due to Ver having voluntarily surrendered his U.S. citizenship, Ver appears to believe Stone may hold the key to his freedom. Last December, Stone’s ‘Stonezone’ website issued a lengthy blog post (not authored by Roger Stone) advocating for Ver’s freedom and asking readers to sign a ‘Free Roger Now’ petition.

Stone is himself a convicted felon who received a Trump pardon in December 2020, just weeks before the end of Trump’s first term in office. In 2019, Stone was convicted on charges of obstructing special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Will Ver’s largesse be enough to turn Trump’s head? Or has the hundreds of millions of dollars that Trump has earned from his crypto ventures made him immune to any and all overtures not reaching the seven-figure mark?

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