China's Top Scalper: A Trump Meet-and-Greet Ticket for $8,000

Original Author: Kaori

Original Editor: Sleepy.md

$8,000.

If you wanted to be at the dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate last weekend, it would only cost you $8,000.

In January 2025, Trump launched a meme coin named after himself. Five months later, he announced that the top 220 token holders could attend a dinner at his golf club. This coin transformed from a speculative on-chain asset into a ticket to meet the President of the United States.

In March 2026, the $TRUMP coin fell below $3, down 96% from its all-time high, but Trump's team announced a second token holder gathering. Scheduled for April 25th, there were a total of 297 spots available.

One crypto fund manager, bigsong, saw the business behind this dinner.

The Ceiling of Scalpers

bigsong has three partners and operates a crypto fund, Saucerful Labs, typically engaging in cycle trading, DeFi yield farming, and quantitative arbitrage. After the $TRUMP coin dinner was announced, his first reaction was to short it. The price surged 50% before retreating, and the short position started turning a profit.

But while looking for a reason to close the position, bigsong recalled an old story.

Last year, one of his partners, luolan, tried to participate in the 2025 dinner's token ranking. After securing a spot, he sold the entry right to someone else for $30,000. He shared this experience with the team, recognizing it as a great opportunity for arbitrage across different circles.

"Everyone thinks it's incredibly difficult to get into the top 297 for the Trump coin," bigsong said, "but in reality, it's not."

Trump's dinner team is operated by his long-time business partner, Bill Zanker. Holders of the on-chain addresses ranked in the top 297 by token points would gain entry to the Mar-a-Lago dinner. The ranking isn't based on the number of tokens held but on points. Each token generates one point per hour. The earlier you deposit and the more you deposit, the higher your points.

Points are calculated only for tokens held in on-chain addresses and Robinhood accounts; tokens on other exchanges don't count. This means the actual number of addresses genuinely competing for the ranking is far less than the total number of $TRUMP holders. Plus, since points are a function of time, the earlier you enter, the greater your advantage.

After estimating this, bigsong's team immediately held a kickoff meeting. Their strategy involved borrowing a portion of $TRUMP coins from lending platforms and hedging the other portion using contracts to lock in price risk. This way, they didn't actually bear the risk of coin price fluctuations, only paying borrowing interest and hedging costs.

They used AI to write programs monitoring coin price volatility and lending health factors to prevent liquidation. They wrote scripts to monitor abnormal withdrawals from each wallet and analyzed all competitor addresses, holdings, and estimated points on-chain, creating a real-time ranking dashboard. They even scanned social media every 24 hours to aggregate community discussions, media reports, and new information released on official Twitter accounts.

During this period, the $TRUMP team delayed the point settlement time by four days, meaning more funds would flow into the points system. Some of bigsong's clients even started competing for points themselves due to this rule change to secure an entry spot.

This wasn't an isolated case. Crypto investor Christensen bought tokens on the exchange while shorting $TRUMP to hedge his risk. The entire operation cost him only $500.

This was a precision production line, with the product being the qualification to meet the US President. In the end, bigsong's team secured 40 out of the 297 spots.

They priced the entry tickets at $8,000.

If the production phase resembled an on-chain war for a quantitative fund, then the sales phase felt like a multilevel marketing conference.

bigsong split sales into two phases. In the first phase, he sought out super agents with social distribution capabilities. He provided them with scripts, promotional images, and even created a dedicated webpage. In the second phase, roughly five days before the registration deadline, he began promoting within crypto circles.

All 40 tickets were sold. The buyers included international students studying in the US, socialites from Hong Kong and Taiwan, young entrepreneurs, and even family groups bringing along their elders.

There was one person who, just four months prior, had taken photos outside Mar-a-Lago and posted them on social media, captioning "Who can take me inside to have a look?" Four months later, he found bigsong through three layers of intermediary connections.

"I really like my buyers," bigsong said. "They are basically ambitious people. I helped them fulfill their wishes using my own abilities. If I may say so, I'm probably the top scalper in China, selling the qualification to meet the President."

Selling the tickets didn't mean the business was over. Every buyer had to pass a security clearance conducted by the Secret Service and a third-party security firm commissioned by Trump's team. This process involved three parties: the $TRUMP coin team confirmed token holding eligibility, the third-party security company handled the background check, and Mar-a-Lago hosted the event.

bigsong's team had to process the security review for each client individually. This post-sales process consumed a significant amount of the team's energy, with paperwork rivaling applying to top-tier universities for 40 people simultaneously. If the check passed, they quickly notified the client. If it failed, they began supplying additional materials, going back and forth in communication.

There was also the case of someone who paid but suddenly decided not to go, initiating a refund process. However, the intermediary fees had already been distributed to sub-agents and were non-recoverable. Some people bought tickets through second or even third-tier dealers, making refund disputes incredibly complex within the nested distribution network.

"We completely underestimated the difficulty of after-sales service," bigsong said. He is a quantitative trader, accustomed to dealing with numbers. But this business dragged him into a traditional commercial world with upstream, midstream, and downstream components, customer service, and dispute resolution.

However, from the official perspective, bigsong didn't exist. His 40 clients appeared on the review list as 40 unrelated individuals.

The Most Exclusive Business Conference

Saturday, April 25, 2026. The 297 top holders of the $TRUMP coin, or at least those deemed top holders by the points ranking system, gathered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.

The event was packaged as a full-day crypto and business summit. The organizer, Fight Fight Fight LLC, printed a line on the promotional page: "The World's Most Exclusive Crypto & Business Conference."

Cathie Wood (Wood） spent the entire afternoon interacting with attendees. Boxing legend Mike Tyson delivered a keynote speech, followed closely by bestselling author Tony Robbins.

Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of stablecoin giant Tether, who has rarely appeared publicly for years, was shaking hands and greeting token holders on the Mar-a-Lago lawn. Also present were venture capital godfather Tim Draper, Arianna Simpson from a16z, Upbit founder Sirgoo Lee, and Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley. The power structure of the crypto world was transplanted into this private Palm Beach estate.

Trump delivered a 45-minute keynote speech at the event. Just minutes before his speech began, he had canceled the US negotiation team's trip to Pakistan for Iran peace talks.

He spoke about the mainstreaming of cryptocurrency, banks not blocking stablecoin legislation, artificial intelligence, the Iran war, and even Trump-branded sneakers.

Throughout the entire speech, he didn't mention his meme coin once.

Attending this event was Turbo, a student studying in the US, doing crypto investments at IOSG Ventures. For him, the most impressive person wasn't the President, but Tony Robbins.

Robbins walked off the stage, navigating through small round tables, coming within half a meter of Turbo. He talked about AI, Crypto, and Robotics. When talking about Crypto, Turbo felt he didn't really understand it deeply, but he knew more than the average person in every field, yet less than the professionals. This sweet spot happens to be the most influential position.

"CEOs of many big companies, after they stop doing first-hand research, sit down and listen to Robbins. Robbins talks to the most seasoned people in every industry, bringing information to these CEOs, and then writes books, bringing the information to the public. Bestselling author, resource integrator, top-tier speaking skills – three roles combined in one person. He was the best speaker I've ever heard live," Turbo said.

Totally Worth It

Sherry was one of the "super agents" bigsong mentioned. Based in New York, she sold 6 tickets this time, including one to an elder who had lived in the US for many years.

She had never imagined meeting Trump in real life. "Ever since Trump was shot, security has been much stricter than before."

But Sherry did the math. Mar-a-Lago is a membership club; a few years ago, the annual fee was $500,000, and joining required a recommendation from an existing member. Even getting a member to take you for a meal would cost several thousand dollars. Showing up before the President for $8,000? "Totally worth it!"

After paying, the wait began.

The registration window was only three days. Rankings were locked on April 14th, and registration closed on the 17th. The information required included name, date of birth, current residential address, nationality, and social media accounts. LinkedIn, Instagram, even Xiaohongshu were acceptable.

But out of the 6 people on her side, two kept failing the security check. With less than two days left until the event, no one among them had booked flights.

"They place great importance on social networks," Sherry said. Some people were very capable and wealthy but hadn't filled out their social media accounts completely. "No matter how we communicated or emailed, they didn't pass."

On the evening of the 23rd, the last person's check finally cleared. Sherry and her companions immediately booked flights and hotels, flying from New York to Florida. It was everyone's first time at Mar-a-Lago and their first time meeting the US President.

At 6:30 AM on the 25th, Sherry and her 6 arrived early, but two people hadn't received the entry QR code. The event was scheduled to start at 8 AM. Sherry negotiated with the organizers on-site for 30 minutes. She called out names, everyone was in the system. The staff checked IDs, verified them one by one, and they eventually received their entry passes.

Other clients of bigsong had the same problem. Sherry had created a WeChat group before the event, gathering the Chinese faces present. She told bigsong to send over anyone who hadn't received the QR code, and she would bring them to communicate with the organizers.

"If one person talks to the organizers, they might not take it seriously. But if a group of people talks, they'll pay attention and speed up the processing."

This group later became the largest Chinese community at the entire event, with 90 members.

bigsong was responsible for production and sales. Sherry spontaneously took on the role of on-site organizer.

In this on-site group, people shared real-time information: where Tyson appeared, which area Cathie Wood was in, and the best spots for photos. She helped unfamiliar companions take photos and gave directions. Sherry also ended up with the most group photos of anyone there.

Besides the frenzy of taking pictures with celebrities, those who bought tickets, like Sherry, felt that networking with these people was the most valuable part.

Turbo observed that the attendees fell into three categories: some just sat quietly listening to the speeches, some socialized occasionally, and others were fervently trying to talk to guests and probe for cooperation opportunities. "Everyone came here for a different purpose. Some just see it as entertainment, a way to prove their status."

He also experienced a culture shock. The entire atmosphere in Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, and surrounding the Trump team felt like a "very, very traditional white culture," completely different from the more Democrat-leaning events he attended in New York.

"Don't you think this is the top-tier social stage for the new generation?" Sherry's feeling was quite the opposite. "We appear before the President, before these investment bigwigs. We are young faces. Did the old immigrants ever have such an opportunity?"

Sherry posted about the event on her social media, and everyone was very approving. She said people approved not because of the coin, but because of the mere fact that these young Chinese people appeared in such a setting - their understanding of politics, their interaction with the President, their presence on the social stage.

Throughout the entire speech, Trump didn't mention his meme coin once. Sherry didn't think this was strange. "If you're the boss of a coin, would you openly pump it? Even the boss of a listed company can't shout 'buy my stock,' let alone the President."

But her judgment of the coin itself differed from her judgment of the event. "This coin itself has no value. All shitcoins have no value."

So what was she buying?

"What's behind it – social resources, network connections," Sherry said. "By buying this coin, it goes without saying that everyone considers us part of the same group. Besides, it provides exclusive things. The event was right there at Mar-a-Lago, business resources that ordinary people can't access."

After the Encore

At the event, attendees received a bag of Trump-branded merchandise: perfume, a red "Fight Fight Fight" watch, a commemorative trading card, and a poster. As soon as Sherry posted a picture of the watch, an elder immediately reserved it. "He said I must keep it for him."

The organizers also launched the "Trump Billionaire Club" mobile game and a membership project called "$TRUMP Coin Club," promising token holders access to lavish suites at top global sports events, private dinners, and the most elite, extraordinary experiences.

On the same evening, Trump rushed back to Washington for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Gunshots were heard on-site. Sherry joked, "A lot of people got confused and thought something happened at the Mar-a-Lago event, but no one came to check on us. Everyone only cared about how the President was."

Within hours of the event's conclusion, the $TRUMP coin dropped 14% to $2.56.

According to Forbes estimates, as of April 2026, transaction fees from the $TRUMP coin had generated nearly $400 million in revenue for Trump-affiliated entities. The price had fallen 96% from its all-time high. His family's entity controls 80% of the coin's supply, but the money-making machine hasn't stopped for a single day.

Data from analytics firm Nansen indicates that the 297 people present this year collectively hold approximately $29 million worth of $TRUMP coins, compared to the $148 million held by the 220 attendees last year. The median holding for VIPs last year was $3.28 million; this year it's $539,000, a decrease of 84%. Many people dumped their holdings after the points window closed.

"Buyers in 2025 held after purchase, driving sustained upward momentum," Nansen's report stated. The 2026 points ranking created a short-term price increase, but this demand was not sustainable.

Buyers are getting smarter. They are not investing in a coin; they are purchasing an entry ticket.

Returning to bigsong's business, he used a set of quantitative trading methodologies, grafted onto the distribution chain of a traditional scalper, turning "meeting the US President" into a standardizable, deliverable commodity.

If you were a person from a traditional industry, how could you meet the US President?

"Either you are a person with political influence, inherently qualified to meet him. Or you are an industry giant in a top-tier field, getting a face-to-face opportunity through business relationships, charity dinners,