In brief
- Tron founder Justin Sun confirmed he was the top TRUMP meme coin holder ranked on the official leaderboard.
- Due to his placement, Sun will attend the President’s upcoming gala dinner alongside an exclusive reception and private tour.
- Scrutiny has surrounded the gala dinner, along with Sun’s previous support of Trump’s family crypto endeavors.
A list of 220 of the top holders of President Donald Trump’s official Solana-based meme coin (TRUMP) was headed by Tron founder Justin Sun, the crypto billionaire confirmed via social media on Monday.
The list contained registered TRUMP holders vying for an invitation to the president’s gala dinner to be hosted at Trump National Golf Course in Washington, D.C. on May 22. The top 25 “VIP” holders, including Sun, also receive access to an exclusive reception and special tour alongside the dinner.
“Honored to support POTUS and grateful for the invitation from Get Trump Memes to attend President Trump’s gala dinner as his TOP fan!,” Sun posted on X (formerly Twitter).
The address, which was labeled as belonging to crypto exchange HTX by blockchain analysis firm Arkham, was previously suspected to be the Tron frontman due to the leaderboard’s “Sun” username, and the fact that he acts as an advisor for the exchange. However, neither Sun nor representatives previously confirmed the suspicions.
Now, though, Sun is confirming that the address—which first received 800,000 TRUMP tokens around the time of the meme coin launch in January—belongs to him.
“As the top holder of TRUMP, I’m excited to connect with everyone, talk crypto, and discuss the future of our industry,” he said on X.
The wallet now holds more than 1.5 million TRUMP tokens on the Solana blockchain, worth just shy of $20 million. Around 1.07 million TRUMP tokens were held in the account prior to the Trump Gala announcement on April 23, which sent the price sharply higher, eclipsing $14 in the process for the first time since March.
Instead of selling into the strength of the token’s price increase, the wallet added even more, ultimately seeing a net influx of more than 359,000 TRUMP tokens—or around $4.72 million at today’s prices—during the leaderboard period, which extended from April 23 to May 12.
For comparison, Sun’s additions alone nearly matched the average spend of VIPs, or the top 25 registered holders of the President’s meme coin. Topping the VIP list doesn’t mean that he’s the top on-chain holder of TRUMP, however, as holders had to register and complete ID checks to be eligible for the dinner. He topped the list of eligible holders, however, and ranks 24th among all Solana addresses holding the token, according to data from block explorer, Solscan.
Sun’s commitment to the TRUMP token is not the first time he’s supported the Trump family’s crypto endeavors. He previously purchased $30 million in WLFI governance tokens from the Trump-connected DeFi protocol, World Liberty Financial.
Financial commitments like those have led to additional scrutiny of late for both Trump and Sun, particularly as the latter seeks resolution in an SEC case that dates back to 2023.
In April, Democratic senators sought a probe into the gala dinner being hosted by Trump, writing a letter to the Office of Government Ethics noting “grave ethics and legal concerns, including the severe risk that President Trump and other officials may be engaging in ‘pay-to-play’ corruption by selling presidential access.”
Then last week, Sun was mentioned by name in a letter from House Democrats seeking access to suspicious activity reports into Trump crypto endeavors from the United States Treasury.
Outwardly, Sun doesn’t appear to be showing any concern. He commented “All in USA” on a post that includes photos of him sharing the stage with Eric Trump at Token2049 in Dubai recently, and solo in front of the Hollywood sign.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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