President Donald Trump on Saturday attended a conference for top holders of his meme coin, delivering off-the-cuff remarks for nearly an hour to an adoring crowd of crypto investors, tech executives, hedge fund managers, and MAGA diehards.
Yet the president appeared undeterred this weekend, indulging his crypto supporters with a splashy celebration thrown at the heart of his political empire.
Entrance to the crypto conference was granted only to the top few hundred holders of Trump’s meme coin. The token’s top 29 investors also gained access to an additional, VIP-only gathering with the president. Announcement of the event initially spiked the price of Trump’s meme coin, which trades as TRUMP, up from $2.93 to $4.37—an increase of almost 50%. But the coin has since dropped significantly in value, trading at just $2.51 at writing. The token is down over 96% since launching in January 2025.
Despite the token’s sagging price, conference attendees who spoke with Decrypt said they were generally pleased with the event—chiefly because it allowed them to visit Mar-a-Lago, a venue of great significance in Trumpworld.
Ultimately, though, Trump only delivered brief remarks at the dinner, held at his Virginia golf club, and did not spend any time in conversation with attendees. Pricing this time around seemed to adjust to those new expectations. One attendee of Saturday’s Mar-a-Lago conference told Decrypt he qualified to attend after purchasing just $3,000 worth of the president’s meme coin.
The attendee, who also went to last year’s meme coin dinner, said he preferred this year’s event—because of the Mar-a-Lago setting.
Multiple guests at Saturday’s meme coin conference described the crowd as predominantly foreign. Three guests told Decrypt that at least half of the attendees appeared to have flown in from Asia.
Decrypt reached out to the White House for a conference guest list but did not receive a response.
After speaking briefly in private with his top meme coin holders, the president then delivered off-the-cuff remarks to the entire conference for nearly 45 minutes. Attendees excitedly took selfies in front of Trump’s podium as the president discussed America’s ongoing war with Iran, crypto regulation, and former president Joe Biden, according to multiple attendees.
Trump joked that Iran doesn’t know who their leader is anymore—a common refrain of his in recent days—and also called Biden “the worst thing to ever happen to old people,” an oft-used jab which elicited the room’s largest laugh, according to attendees.
“It was the same old stuff,” one guest told Decrypt. “He repeats himself every speech—I could almost lipsync it.”
But Trump stayed “much longer” this time compared to last year’s meme coin dinner, the guest said—so it was hard to complain.
Immediately after finishing his speech, the president departed for Palm Beach International Airport. There, on the tarmac, when asked by Decrypt why he chose to attend his own meme coin conference, Trump opted not to discuss his personal crypto venture, but instead emphasized the importance of supporting the industry generally.
“I really feel I have an obligation as a president, I have to be able to make sure all of our industries do well,” the president said.
“Crypto’s a big industry,” he continued. “It’s actually become somewhat mainstream—the banks have it, people have it…. We’re leading China by a lot in AI, and we’re also leading in crypto.”
Back at the conference, attendees listened to panels on neurotechnology and “resilience in sports and in life.” One audience member said their favorite speech of the day came not from the president, but from motivational speaker Tony Robbins, who urged the audience to either embrace AI agents or hard manual labor as technology reshapes the job market.
The audience member had previously tried to livestream Trump’s speech on his phone, but the stream was discovered by a Secret Service agent who shut it down—an experience that had the guest “pretty shaken up.”
After all speakers, including former boxer Mike Tyson, took the stage, the group then mingled at a poolside happy hour—which one attendee loved, but complained was too short.
As we waited on the tarmac at PBI for President Trump to disembark AF1, I spotted Bill Zanker, the man at the center of Trump’s meme coin operation.
One Trump meme coin holder, who attended both last year’s and this year’s gatherings, told Decrypt he’s excited about the plan. He said he remains optimistic that the TRUMP token will one day climb back to previous highs—but that for now, he’s focused more on demonstrating his loyalty to the president.
“He doesn’t owe us anything,” the token holder, who has supported Trump since 2015, said. “If anything, we owe him.”
