WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is offering the top holders of his meme coin a private dinner at his members-only golf club just outside Washington next month as part of a competition

President Donald Trump is offering the top holders of his meme coin a private dinner at his members-only golf just outside Washington next month as part of a competition

President Donald Trump is offering the top 220 holders of his meme coin an intimate private dinner at his members-only golf club just outside Washington next month as part of a competition, according to a promotion on the coin’s website this week.

The former president will be inviting the highest 220 average meme coin top up to the gala dinner at Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C., on May 22, the coin’s website says. Diners will have the chance to hear from Trump “first-hand” about the future of cryptocurrency.

The leading 25 investors will also be invited to an exclusive reception with Trump before dinner as well as a separate special VIP tour. The site did not clarify where the tour would take place and insinuated the president would not take part.

“The President will not be part of the VIP tour, but you’ll be treated like royalty nonetheless,” the website states.

The website lays out steps for eligibility, including registering your wallet and holding “as much $TRUMP as you can.” The winners will be determined by those who have the highest average holdings between April 23 through May 12, with the site promising a leaderboard updated in real-time. Top holders must pass a background check to attend the dinner and cannot be from a "Know Your Country" watchlist country.

The move drew immediate criticism from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who took to X to blast the new meme coin competition on Wednesday, calling the coin the “most brazenly corrupt thing a President has ever done.”

“The president of the United States is organizing a competition to see who can hold the most useless meme coin for the greatest period of time, and the prize is dinner with the president at his golf club,” Murphy said.

The government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called it "one of the most blatant and appalling instances of selling access to the presidency we've ever seen."

The announcement appeared to give Trump’s coin a significant boost, with the price going from about $9.30 just before noon Eastern time Wednesday to more than $13.30 an hour later, just before 1 p.m., according to CoinMarketCap. The meme coin’s X account posted about the competition at just before 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

CoinMarketCap shows the price hitting a peak of $14.51 Wednesday evening in the wake of the announcement. As of around 1 p.m. Thursday, the price was at $12.30.

Trump, who pledged to make America the crypto capital of the world on the campaign trail, launched the token just before his inauguration in January in what was seen as a norm-diverging move that sparked backlash from some critics. The coin, named after the president’s last name, had previously peaked in February 2022 at around 687 units of the meme coin, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

First lady Melania Trump also launched her own coin ahead of her husband’s official entry back into the nation’s highest office.

Since his return to the Oval Office, Trump has sought to advance cryptocurrency, holding the first White House summit on the topic last month, launching a government bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile, and looking to ease regulations of the industry.