It seems like a triumph for a cryptocurrency industry that has long sought mainstream acceptance: Top investors in one of President Donald Trump 's crypto projects invited to dine with him at his luxury golf club in Northern Virginia on the heels of the Senate advancing key pro-crypto legislation and while bitcoin prices soar .
But Thursday night's dinner for the 220 biggest investors in the TRUMP meme coin has raised uncomfortable questions about potentially shadowy buyers using the anonymity of the internet to buy access to the president.
While Democrats charge that Trump is using the power of the presidency to boost profits for his family business, even some pro-Trump crypto enthusiasts worry that the president's push into meme coins isn't helping their efforts to establish the credibility, stability and legitimacy they had thought his administration would bring to their businesses.
After feeling unfairly targeted by the Biden administration, the industry has quickly become a dominant political force, donating huge sums to help Trump and crypto-friendly lawmakers. But that's also served to tether the industry - sometimes uncomfortably - to a president who is using crypto as a platform to make money for his brand in unprecedented ways.
"It's distasteful and an unnecessary distraction," said Nic Carter, a Trump supporter and partner at the crypto investment firm Castle Island Ventures, who said the president is "hugging us to death" with his private crypto businesses. "We would much rather that he passes common-sense legislation and leave it at that."