Quốc phục số một Hoa Kỳ: Một tấm vé gặp Trump, 8.000 đô la Mỹ

Original author: Kaori

Original editor: Sleepy.md

$8,000.

If you wanted to be at the party at Trump's Mar-a-Lago last weekend, all it took was $8,000.

In January 2025, Trump launched a meme coin named after himself. Five months later, he announced that the top 220 holders could attend a dinner at his golf club. The coin transformed from a on-chain speculative 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 peak, but Trump's team announced a second gathering for holders. Scheduled for April 25th, there were 297 spots available.

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

The Ceiling of Scalpers

bigsong has three partners and runs a crypto fund, Saucerful Labs, typically engaging in cyclical trading, DeFi yield farming, and quantitative arbitrage. After the TRUMP coin dinner was announced, his first instinct was to short the coin. The price rose 50% then fell, and the short position became profitable.

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

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

"People think getting into the top 297 for Trump coin is extremely difficult," bigsong said, "but it's actually not."

Trump's event team is run by his long-time business partner, Bill Zanker. Holders of the top 297 on-chain addresses by holding score earned entry to the Mar-a-Lago banquet. The ranking wasn't based on the number of coins held, but on a score. Each coin generates one point per hour; the earlier and the more you deposit, the higher your score.

The score only counts coins held in on-chain addresses and Robinhood accounts. Coins held on other exchanges don't count. This means the actual number of addresses competing for the ranking is far fewer than the total number of TRUMP coin holders. Plus, since the score is a function of time, the earlier you enter, the greater your advantage.

After their estimation, bigsong's team immediately held a project kickoff meeting. Their strategy was to borrow some TRUMP coins from lending platforms and hedge the rest using contracts, locking in price risk. This way, they essentially didn't bear the risk of coin price fluctuations, only paying borrowing interest and hedging costs.

They used AI to write programs monitoring price volatility and lending health factors to prevent liquidation. They scripted monitors for abnormal withdrawals from each wallet, analyzed all competing addresses, their holdings, and estimated scores, and built a real-time ranking dashboard. They even scanned social media every 24 hours, aggregating community discussions, media reports, and new tweets from the official account.

During this period, the $TRUMP team postponed the score settlement by four days, meaning more funds would flow into the scoring system. Some of bigsong's clients even started competing for the score themselves to secure a spot due to this rule change.

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

It was a precision production line, with the product being a meeting with the U.S. President. Ultimately, out of the 297 spots, bigsong's team secured 40.

They priced the entry tickets at $8,000.

If the production phase was like a quant fund's on-chain warfare, the sales phase felt like a pyramid scheme convention.

bigsong divided the sales into two stages. First, he found super agents with social distribution capabilities. He provided them with scripts, promotional images, and even created a dedicated webpage. Second, about five days before registration closed, he started promoting within the crypto circle.

All 40 tickets were sold. Buyers included international students studying in the US, socialites from Hong Kong and Taiwan, young entrepreneurs, and families bringing their elders.

One person had been to Mar-a-Lago four months earlier just to take photos outside and post on social media, captioning "Who can take me inside to see?" Four months later, he found bigsong through three layers of intermediaries.

"I really like my buyers," bigsong said. "They are mostly ambitious people, and I helped fulfill their wishes with my own abilities. I'm probably the top scalper in China, selling the privilege of meeting the President."

Selling the ticket wasn't the end of the business. Every buyer had to pass a security check by the Secret Service and a third-party security firm commissioned by Trump's team. This stage involved a three-party collaboration: the TRUMP coin team confirmed eligibility, the third-party security firm conducted background checks, and Mar-a-Lago handled the event hosting.

bigsong's team had to manage the review process for each client individually. The after-sales process consumed a huge amount of the team's energy, with paperwork comparable to applying for top universities for 40 people simultaneously. If the check passed, they quickly notified the client; if it didn't, they started submitting supplementary materials and back-and-forth communication.

Some people paid but suddenly decided not to go, initiating a refund process. However, the commission had already been distributed to sub-agents and couldn't be recovered. Some tickets were bought through second or third-tier distributors, making refund disputes extremely complex within the multi-layered distribution network.

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

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

The Most Unique Business Conference

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

The event was packaged as an all-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 (Woodie) spent the entire afternoon mingling with attendees. Boxing legend Mike Tyson gave a keynote speech, followed by bestselling author Tony Robbins.

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

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

He touched upon the mainstreaming of cryptocurrency, the need for banks not to obstruct stablecoin legislation, AI, the war in Iran, and even Trump-branded sneakers.

Throughout the entire speech, he never once mentioned his meme coin.

A student studying in the US named Turbo, who does crypto investments at IOSG Ventures, attended the event. The person who impressed him the most wasn't the President, but Tony Robbins.

Robbins walked off the stage, weaving between small round tables, coming within half a meter of Turbo. He talked about AI, Crypto, and Robots. When discussing Crypto, Turbo felt he wasn't exceptionally knowledgeable, but he was one level deeper than the average person and one level lighter than the professionals. This position is precisely the most influential.

"CEOs of many big companies, after they stop doing frontline research, sit down and listen to Robbins. Robbins talks to the most senior people in each industry, bringing that information to these CEOs; then writes books, bringing that information to the public. A bestselling author, a resource integrator, and a top-notch speaker – three roles combined in one person. He was the best speaker I've ever heard live," Turbo said.

Totally Worth It

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

She had never thought about meeting Trump in real life before. "Ever since Trump was shot at, security has been much tighter than before."

But Sherry did the math. Mar-a-Lago is a membership club. A few years ago, the annual fee was $500,000, plus you needed a recommendation from an existing member. Even having a member take you for a meal costs a few thousand dollars. "For $8,000 to appear before the President? Totally worth it!"

After paying, the waiting 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 residence address, nationality, and social media accounts—LinkedIn, Instagram, even Xiaohongshu were acceptable.

But out of her group of 6, two people's approvals were delayed. With less than two days left until the event, no one had booked flights yet.

"They pay a lot of attention to social networks," Sherry said. Some people were very capable and wealthy but didn't fill in their social media accounts completely. "No matter how we communicated or emailed, it didn't pass."

On the night of the 23rd, the last person's security check finally passed. 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 arrived early with her 6 people, but two hadn't received their entry QR codes. The event started at 8 AM. Sherry negotiated with the organizers for 30 minutes on-site. She called out their names; everyone was in the system. The staff checked IDs, verified one by one, and they finally received entry.

Other clients of bigsong had the same issue. Before the event, Sherry created a WeChat group to bring together the Chinese faces on-site. She told bigsong to send over anyone who hadn't received a QR code, and she would take them to communicate with the organizers together.

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

This group later became the largest Chinese community for the entire event, with 90 people.

bigsong handled production and sales, while Sherry spontaneously took on the role of on-site organizer.

In this on-site group, people would share real-time information: where Tyson was, which area Wood was in, where to get the best photos. She helped unfamiliar companions grab quick photos and gave directions. Sherry ended up with the most group photos of anyone there.

Besides the frenzy of taking photos with celebrities, attendees who bought tickets like Sherry felt that networking with these people was the most valuable aspect.

Turbo observed three types of people on-site: some sat quietly listening to the speeches, others socialized occasionally, and a third group eagerly chatted with guests, probing for collaboration opportunities. "Everyone has a different purpose here. Some just see it as entertainment or a way to prove their status."

He also felt a cultural shock. The whole atmosphere of Palm Beach, Mar-a-Lago, and Trump's team projected a "very, very traditional white culture," completely different from the more Democratic-leaning events he attended in New York.

"Don't you think this is the ultimate social stage for the new generation?" Sherry's feeling was starkly different. "We appear before the President, before these investment giants. We are young faces. When did the older immigrants ever have such an opportunity?"

Sherry posted about the event on her social media, and everyone was very approving. She said people weren't approving the coin itself, but the fact that these young Chinese people were present in this setting – their understanding of politics, their interaction with the President, their appearance on this social stage.

Throughout the entire speech, Trump never once mentioned his meme coin. Sherry didn't find this strange. "If you were the boss of a coin, would you publicly pump it? Even the boss of a listed company can't tell people to buy their stock. The President certainly can't."

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

So what did she buy?

"What's behind it. Social resources, networks," Sherry said. "When you buy this coin, it goes without saying that people think we are in the same circle. Moreover, it provides exclusive access – events at Mar-a-Lago, business resources that normal people can't reach."

After the Event

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

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

That same evening, Trump returned to Washington D.C. for the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. Suddenly, there were sounds of gunshots on-site. Sherry jokingly said, "Many 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 doing."

Within hours of the event ending, the TRUMP coin dropped 14% to $2.56.

According to Forbes estimates, as of April 2026, trading fees for the TRUMP coin had generated nearly $400 million in revenue for Trump-affiliated entities. The coin price had fallen 96% from its peak. His family 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 attendees this year collectively held approximately $29 million worth of TRUMP coins, compared to $148 million held by the 220 attendees last year. The median holding among VIPs last year was $3.28 million; this year it was $539,000, a shrinkage of 84%. Many people dumped their holdings after the scoring window closed.

"Buyers in 2025 held after purchasing, driving sustained price increases," Nansen's report stated. The 2026 scoring ranking created a short-term price spike, but this demand was not sustainable.

Buyers are getting smarter. They aren't 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 a traditional scalper's distribution channel, turning "meeting the U.S. President" into a standardized, deliverable product.

If you were from a traditional industry, how could you meet the U.S. President?

"Either you're a politically influential figure who naturally has the right to meet him. Or you're a giant in a top-tier industry, getting a face-to-face opportunity through business relationships, charity dinners, or policy lobbying channels. Or you could attend a campaign rally; the President stands on a distant stage giving a speech, and you are one among the vast, surging crowd below. You do see him, but he's up there, and you're down here. The distance between you is both physical and structural."

bigsong used this example to showcase the value of his business. Sherry filled the missing piece