This Saturday, President Donald Trump joined a meetup for the top buyers of his meme coin. He spent about an hour speaking freely to a supportive group of crypto traders, tech leaders, hedge fund managers, and fervent MAGA followers.

The Mar-a-Lago event took place as the Trump family’s extensive crypto ventures come under intensifying congressional scrutiny. This has also created rifts within the Republican Party, stalling essential crypto-related bills.

Despite the controversy, Trump didn’t seem bothered this weekend. He pleased his crypto backers with a grand party at the core of his political territory.

Only the top few hundred holders of the Trump meme coin were allowed into the event. The leading 29 investors also secured access for an exclusive VIP session with the president. The event announcement gave a brief boost to the price of Trump’s coin, known as TRUMP, jumping almost 50% from $2.93 to $4.37. However, the coin has since lost a lot of value, trading at $2.51 when this was written — down more than 96% from its January 2025 launch.

Even with the coin’s falling price, those who spoke with Decrypt at the event said they were happy with the experience. The biggest draw for many was getting into Mar-a-Lago, an iconic place in Trump’s world.

This event was also much more affordable to attend compared to the previous year’s Trump meme coin dinner. Many participants paid millions per person for that earlier dinner, hoping for a personal meeting with the world’s most powerful man.

In the end, Trump only gave brief remarks at that dinner held at his Virginia golf club and did not mingle with guests. The organizers seem to have adjusted the entry requirements this time around. One person at Saturday’s Mar-a-Lago event, who also attended last year’s dinner, told Decrypt that purchasing just $3,000 of the presidential meme coin was enough to qualify.

This attendee mentioned they actually found this year’s gathering—hosted at Mar-a-Lago—more appealing.

A number of guests at Saturday’s event described the crowd as being mostly international. Three of them told Decrypt that at least half appeared to have traveled from Asia.

Decrypt reached out to the White House for a guest list but received no response.

On Saturday afternoon, Trump first had a short meeting with the top 29 coin holders, chatting about things like crypto, artificial intelligence, and his relationship with China’s President Xi Jinping. Notably missing from the event, as per various attendees, was Justin Sun — the controversial crypto mogul who has been the leading holder of the TRUMP token.

Just last week, Solar launched a legal complaint targeting the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, leveling accusations of improper business conduct. In response, World Liberty’s team fired back with similar allegations against Solar. Meanwhile, under the leadership of Trump appointee Paul Atkins, the SEC recently moved to resolve the entrepreneur’s long-running fraud case—a choice that allegedly led to the agency’s top enforcement official stepping down almost immediately afterward.

Following some brief private face time with his top meme coin supporters, the president launched into an improvised chat with the entire audience for close to three-quarters of an hour. Guests eagerly snapped selfies beside Trump’s podium as he touched on America’s current tensions with Iran, crypto industry guidelines, and his predecessor Joe Biden, according to various people at the event.

Trump quipped that Iran is leaderless at this point—a regular talking point he has repeated lately—and slammed Biden as “the absolute worst thing to ever happen to the elderly,” a favorite dig that earned the biggest laugh of the day from the crowd.

“It was the same old stuff,” one visitor shared with Decrypt. “He recycles his lines every time—I could practically mouth along with him.”

That said, Trump stayed on stage “quite a while longer” than he did at last year’s meme coin dinner, so guests felt it was tough to gripe about the repetition.

Right after wrapping up his speech, the president headed over to Palm Beach International Airport. While standing on the runway and chatting with Decrypt about why he chose to attend his own meme coin conference, Trump avoided discussing his personal crypto enterprise and instead focused on the general importance of backing the industry.

“I really feel I have an obligation as a president, I have to be able to make sure all of our industries do well,” Trump explained.

“Crypto’s a big industry,” he continued. “It’s really 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.” 

From there, Trump flew back to Washington to join the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a gathering where an armed individual managed to sneak in later that same evening.

Throughout the rest of the conference, participants attended talks covering neurotechnology and “resilience in sports and in life.” One person noted that their favorite part of the event wasn’t the president’s appearance, but a talk from motivational speaker Tony Robbins, who told the crowd they must either adopt AI technology orbrace for tough manual labor as automation changes the job landscape.

This same attendee had tried to livestream Trump’s comments via their phone, but a Secret Service agent quickly spotted the stream and blocked it—an experience that left the guest feeling “pretty rattled.”

After the final speakers—including former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson—wrapped up their presentations, everyone gathered at a poolside social hour, which was well-received but felt too brief for one disgruntled participant.

A constant presence all day was Bill Zanker, the key figure behind Trump’s meme coin project. A close personal friend of the president who has led his branded footwear, timepieces, and NFT collections, Zanker generally prefers to stay under the radar. He apparently came along for the Air Force One flight from Washington to Mar-a-Lago on Friday evening. When Decrypt tried to speak with him at the Palm Beach airstrip, Zanker hurried off and turned down an interview.

Even with the tight safety measures at Mar-a-Lago, Zanker managed to snap loads of pictures with visitors on Saturday. On the meme coin convention, he went all-in on revealing his newest gamified idea for Trump meme coin followers: a “Trump Club” that guarantees large token holders “entry to international-class personal packing containers at main sporting occasions, personal dinners, and actually high-tier experiences.”

One Trump meme coin collector, who's been to each final 12 months's and this 12 months's conferences, instructed Decrypt he';s thrilled about this system. He stated he's nonetheless hopeful the TRUMP token will ultimately return to its earlier peak costs—however at this level, he's extra centered on displaying his dedication to the President.

“He doesn’t owe us something,” the token holder, an outspoken Trump supporter since 2015, stated. “If something, we’re indebted to him.”