Good morning. In this edition:

• 🪙 Trump’s memecoin dinner
• 🚢 Cruise ships + private islands
• 🪼 The “immortal jellyfish” species

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~4.30-minute read (1,144 words).

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"It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."

–René Descartes (1596-1650)

President Trump is scheduled to host the top buyers of his cryptocurrency, $TRUMP, for a private dinner at his golf club in Washington, D.C., tonight.

Invitations for the event were extended to the top 220 $TRUMP holders as of Monday. Of that group, the top 25 holders will be granted an “ultra-exclusive private VIP reception” with Trump, as well as a White House tour.

What is $TRUMP?

The cryptocurrency is known as a memecoin, or a project whose underlying value stems from being a popular internet meme. The President launched $TRUMP three days before his January 20 inauguration, with 80% of the coin project owned by two Trump-affiliated companies. A share of each trade is also routed to crypto wallets linked to Trump firms.

• Like many memecoins, $TRUMP’s value fluctuates wildly. After debuting at $10/token, the individual price rose as high as $71 hours later, before a steady decline to its current price of ~$14.

Who’s attending tonight’s dinner? The top 220 $TRUMP holders have their crypto user names and wallet addresses listed on a Trump website leaderboard, but their real identities aren’t disclosed outside of voluntary announcements—like the #1 holder, crypto mogul Justin Sun.

• The amount of money spent to secure a spot ranged from $55,000-$37.7 million, with an average of $1.8 million/seat, per an analysis by blockchain analytics company Nansen.
• As of two weeks ago, 19 of the top 25 holders and more than half of the top 220 had bought the coin using foreign exchanges that claim to exclude US customers, according to Bloomberg ($).

The other side of the coin: Critics have raised ethical concerns about $TRUMP and the President’s other recent crypto ventures, including a newly launched stablecoin. Watchdog groups say the President is directly benefiting from his office and could use his crypto to trade favors with benefactors who remain anonymous to the public. They also note that it’s generally illegal for non-US citizens to donate to American political candidates.

Since launching, StartEngine has enabled exposure for over 2.1M users¹ to coveted, pre-IPO companies² like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Discord.

• 🏆 They just had their biggest quarter, with $30M revenue in Q1 2025, more than tripling YoY revenue (Q1 2024 was $9M)
• 🔓 The platform features initial investments starting at just $15,000 (versus 7-figure VC minimums)
• 👑 Led by Howard Marks, co-founder of Activision (acquired by Microsoft for $68.7B)

45,000+ people have already invested $84M+ in StartEngine since they launched at this price—while revenue tripled. You can still secure the same price until June 26.

Cruise companies are pulling a reverse Paul Revere—$1 if by sea, $2 if by land. In an effort to drum up revenue, these businesses with ships the size of countries are increasingly focusing their efforts on land-based ventures located on private islands that they’ve purchased.

Cruise industry giants currently own ~20 such destinations in the Caribbean, and nearly every company is working to expand their holdings:

• Royal Caribbean expects to launch four more properties by early 2027, at which point ~90% of its Caribbean cruises will sail to at least one in-house port.
• Carnival has scheduled nearly all of its ships to stop at its new $600 million Celebration Key resort once it opens in July.
• MSC Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line are both expanding their private Caribbean islands to accommodate thousands of additional daily guests.

These islands carry several advantages. Along with giving cruise ships additional places to dock and refuel close to their home ports, the private resorts offer travelers a plethora of additional excursions, restaurants, and entertainment opportunities—all with the same lucrative up-charges as the ships.

Zoom out: Growth in cruise travel has begun to slow in recent months compared to a recent post-pandemic boom, leading many companies to look for new ways to boost their bottom lines. These include investments in ultra-luxury sailings, more intimate river cruises, and new interactive excursions.

Regular Joe? Fanatics is offering you a chance to go up against the pros.

The sports-centric company this week announced Fanatics Games, a skills competition between 50 NARPs and 50 pro athletes and celebrities with $2 million in total prizes on the line.

• 1st place: $1 million in cash
• 2nd place: A Ferrari 812 GTS
• 3rd place: A LeBron James trading card worth ~$250,000

And should athletes/celebrities sweep the top three, the highest scoring fan will receive $100,000.

The talent: James Harden, Kevin Durant, A-Rod, Tyreek Hill, Tom Brady, Gronk (who goes wherever Tom does), Jordan Chiles, Kevin Hart, Druski (a regular at events like these), and more.

The Joes may kind of have a chance: The sports-skills comp involves eight activities—football passing accuracy, basketball shooting (around the world), soccer goal-scoring, baseball pitching accuracy, a washer-dryer hockey shooting challenge, a WWE Superstar entrance, a UFC striking challenge, and a closest-to-the-pin golf challenge.

It’s a growth thing. The Games will occur next month at the company’s second-annual Fanatics Fest, which drew ~70,000 people to its inaugural event in 2024.

This year, Fanatics—a $31+ billion biz that has its hands in gambling, merch/memorabilia, trading cards, and more—is hoping to draw 100,000 attendees, with the competition seen as one way to drum up hype and hit this number.

Elsewhere…More pros vs. joes competition is in the works, after NFL owners this week approved a proposal to allow players to participate in flag football at the 2028 Olympics.

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🪙 Bitcoin hit a new all-time high, breaking its January record; the cryptocurrency was trading at ~$110,200 as of 9:15 pm ET.
• 📱 OpenAI is buying iPhone designer Jony Ive’s AI devices startup for ~$6.5 billion.
• 👟 Nike plans to raise prices on a range of items as soon as this week. | The checkmark retailer also announced it will start selling items directly on Amazon for the first time since 2019.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

in partnership with Arro

• 🎢 Universal’s Epic Universe opens in Orlando today; it’s Florida’s first new major theme park in 25 years.
• 🏆 The 2025 Sports Emmys were unveiled at a ceremony in NYC; winners include Lady Gaga, Charles Barkley, and Peyton Manning. | 🧑‍⚖️ Chris Brown was released from a UK jail on ~$6.7 million bail; his trial over an alleged 2023 nightclub attack will begin next month.
• 🏀 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named NBA MVP last night; the OKC Thunder guard beat out Nuggets C Nikola Jokić. | 🏈 Even NFL owners can’t stop the tush push: The QB-sneak play popularized by the Eagles will remain legal after narrowly surviving yesterday’s owners vote.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🪐 Jupiter used to be twice as big as its current size and had a magnetic field that was ~50x as strong, per a new study.
• ⚡ The world’s most powerful laser has been developed by University of Michigan researchers; it can reach 2 petawatts of power—100x the global electricity output—for a small fraction of a second.
• 🤖 Google debuted a real-time language translation tool for Google Meet, powered by AI. | Alphabet-owned Waymo has surpassed 10 million paid robotaxi trips, a figure that’s doubled over the past five months.

US, WORLD & POLITICS

in partnership with HelloTalk

• 🙏 Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) passed away at 75 following a battle with cancer.
• 🌍 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited President Trump at the White House yesterday; their meeting featured a tense exchange over what Trump says are threats to white farmers in South Africa.
• 🏛️ The Pentagon said it has taken possession of a luxury jet plane from Qatar to use as President Trump’s Air Force One; the move has drawn concerns from lawmakers across the aisle. | The DOJ announced the dismissal of pending police reform agreements in Minneapolis and Louisville that followed the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

*From our partners: 🌍 Language learners are ditching textbooks for real conversations… Connect with 60M+ native speakers in 160+ languages on HelloTalk. Practice through text chats, voice messages, or video calls with people who actually speak the language you're learning. Learn together with new friends—download HelloTalk free.

Yesterday we covered President Trump’s plans for a Golden Dome missile defense shield, which would detect, track, and potentially intercept incoming missiles, including nuclear weapons.

❓ Our question to you: In general, do you support President Trump’s plan to construct a Golden Dome missile defense system?

• Yes: 26%
• No: 62%
• Unsure/other: 12%

Click here to read some of the most thoughtful longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 2,158 votes and 225 longform responses.

Mt. Thor, pictured above, features the sheerest vertical drop on Planet Earth (nearly a mile). In which country is it located?

🤸‍♀️ New Jerseyan gym rat Paul Budline just claimed the world record for the oldest male to perform a handstand, at 74 years and 145 days old—only a few years after a major hip surgery. 

🐢 A young sea turtle received the ultimate spa treatment, after being rescued off the coast of North Carolina covered with barnacles, algae, and other aquatic creatures. See its sweet recovery.

🎓 Rollins College graduate Cecilia Hernandez had a special guest share the stage with her during commencement: her service dog Canela, who was recognized with a special patch at the May 11 ceremony. 

Canada (Nunavut)

STARTENGINE

1. Count determined as number of unique email addresses in StartEngine’s database as of 03-07-2025. One individual may have more than one email address. Note that in In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest’s users, investors, and founders.

2. The underlying companies held by StartEngine Private Funds LLC, and StartEngine Private LLC (together, “StartEngine Private”) are not participating or involved in the offering. The availability of company information does not indicate that the company has endorsed, supports or otherwise participates with StartEngine Private or any of its affiliates. StartEngine Crowdfunding LLC purchases shares from current and former employees, early investors, and advisors of the companies and sells the shares to StartEngine Private for each offering. When you make an investment in a company on StartEngine Private, you are purchasing an interest in a series of StartEngine Private Funds LLC or StartEngine Private LLC, each a Delaware limited liability company (together the “Series LLCs”), which were created to hold shares of privately held companies. An investor will not directly own or hold shares of the private company but instead will own member interests in a series of the Series LLCs, which either directly or indirectly, will hold shares in the company. There may not be a one-to-one economic parity on the value of the Series LLCs interests and the underlying shares.

3. Based on our 2024 Form 10-K. This revenue growth has been driven by StartEngine Private, a new product line that offers funds in late stage companies. This product line has driven over $28 million of the $48 million in revenue from 2024. Net loss also increased to $16.5 million. To understand the impact on margins, see financials.

ARRO

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