Of the cringier things that occurred during the inaugural ceremony of Donald Trump, there were the benediction prayers, neither of which were benedictory in nature. The first was performed by a Zionist rabbi, while another was offered up by Pastor Lorenzo Sewell of 180 Church in Detroit. His prayer was filled with cringe and performed in the “black preacher voice” in which he made passionate appeal and impersonation of Martin Luther King Jr in both rhetoric and content. The prayer was derided as both cringe and performative by many Trump supporters.
180 Church in Detroit is a charismatic church pastored by Sewell, who has made a reputation for himself within Republican circles. A month before his assassination attempt, Trump had visited the church while Sewell made an eight-minute speech at the RNC. Sewell would be tapped to give a prayer at the inauguration as a means to appeal to (or coddle) the black community, which despite these gestures, resoundingly supported Kamala Harris.
In tandem with the inauguration, Sewell put out a post surrounding his cryptocurrency $Lorenzo.
The crypto community was kind enough to send me $Lorenzo, so I have permanently locked my tokens into a Liquidity Pool, so that I will never sell on the community but rather just earn fees as our token continues to flourish!
— Pastor Zo (@pastorzosewell) January 20, 2025
Amazing day, all the Glory to God!
CA:… pic.twitter.com/kAZFL3mMmb
As has been seen in recent years, there has been a rise in NFT and Crypto scams, as this area is the wild west in its lack of regulatory oversight, allowing anyone who can code to create their own crypto asset and enrich themselves. Last year, the Hawk Tuah e-thot launched her own coin which plummeted after being “pumped and dumped.”
The inherent risk with these crypto scams is that there is always a “rug-pull” in which the creator will liquidate their stockpile and cash out, leaving the investors holding the bag. Thus, the backers pump the asset before dumping their shares at a profit.

The charts do not lie. The crypto was pumped on January 20th and dumped in large volumes on January 20th, trading for micro-pennies ever since. The market cap peaked at $3.7 million before there was a sell-off. Currently, the market cap hovers at around $200K.

The largest holder of $Lorenzo owns 25.96%, which is presumably Sewell himself or someone otherwise associated with him. This amounts to not even $21,000. The top ten owners hold over half of the asset, denoting that it is owned by insiders or several large whales—relatively speaking. No one is going to lose everything on this unless they have little to begin with. The current trading volume is low dollar amounts.
In his message, Sewell claimed that there was not going to be a rug-pull, but the data shows that there clearly was large volume in sales after the initial pumping on January 20th. Whatever money he hoped he was going to receive from this scam, he probably already has, to where holding $21K is immaterial. He could have easily cashed ten times that amount during the sell-off. Nevertheless, what makes this repugnant is that Sewell brands this action as being for the purpose of ministry and doing good works in his community, in which he calls for people to purchase the coin to that end.
Since churches can raise tax-deductible money directly and without the hassle of creating a crypto asset, to what purpose does Sewell promote this coin other than personal enrichment? Also, for the consumer, this is a disadvantageous means to donate money when they otherwise could just give cash. Though the buyers might be able to write off their losses, Sewell can funnel his gains into ministry as a charitable tax deduction. What he did might not be illegal, but it is most certainly dishonest and misrepresents the reality that he sold a personalized crypto coin to capitalize on his presence in the inaugural ceremony.
Lorenzo Sewell used his ministry to pump and dump his personal crypto coin, and he has succeeded in making a quick buck. Sewell touts his backstory of being a man from the streets on the east side of Detroit. Evidently, the scams of the streets have followed him into ministry.
4 Responses
The only prayer at the inauguration that I really appreciated was the one by Timothy Dolan (the tall Catholic priest).
Crypto whales pump and dump other people’s coins with or without their permission. Crypto has always been a playground for (((scammers))).
I thought Graham’s was alright.
Usury to the max