Just hours after 180 Church Pastor Lorenzo Sewell gave the invocation at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, he launched a new cryptocurrency token, Bridge Detroit reports.
Sewell’s platform expanded after Trump visited his Detroit-based church for a “Blacks For Trump” rally in early 2024, prompting an invite to Washington for the inauguration. After his prayer went viral, he jumped on social media to promote his new cryptocurrency token, similar to one of Trump’s. “I need you to do me a favor right now: I need you to go buy the official Lorenzo Sewell coin,” Sewell said in a video posted to X.
“I want you to be able to see politics become manifest not just in a way where we’re paying over political gatherings, but we’re seeing us become the hands and feet of the lord Jesus Christ. Will you help me?”
He continued to allege that purchasing the coin would help his ministry as the church provides transportation, food, and more.
After the announcement on Jan. 20, Sewell’s coin value only started at a fraction of a penny when it went public, but 24 hours later, it increased dramatically. First lady Melania Trump also launched a pair of cryptocurrency tokens ahead of the inauguration. Social media reactions alluded to the launches as a Ponzi scheme. Meme coins are labeled risky financial investments because they are often correlated to gimmicks and tend to either soar or drastically drop in value.
Several scammers have been linked to meme coins, so it’s no surprise that people reacted similarly to Sewell’s announcement. According to Fortune, social media users accused the preacher of swindling people, one even saying he was “stealing from the poor.”
@artcandee called him a “fake Christian.” “You seem like an embarrassing fake Christian trying to grift off people.,” she wrote.
You seem like an embarrassing fake Christian trying to grift off people.
— Art Candee
(@ArtCandee) January 20, 2025
Several religious leaders said that movements like those of Sewell and the Trumps were not what God wanted.
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