First Lady's Meme Coin Architects Facing Pump-and-Dump Scam Lawsuit
The developers behind a digital token introduced by US First Lady Melania Trump have been charged in court filings of planning a market manipulation plot.
Initial Launch and Value Spike
The $MELANIA tokens were released for just a few cents each on the 19th of January, the day before Donald Trump was inaugurated.
Together with the Melania cryptocurrency, Donald Trump launched his $TRUMP coin just ahead of the inauguration ceremony.
In a matter of hours, the price of the $MELANIA coin soared to $13.73 per coin.
Rapid Decline in Price
However, the price subsequently crashed almost as quickly, and currently stands at less than 15 cents – under one percent of its highest value.
Meanwhile, the $TRUMP coin achieved a maximum of over forty-five dollars and now trades for approximately five seventy-nine.
Court Claims and Investors' Arguments
The claimants claim that the token's architects planned the maneuver knowing that the token's worth would plummet.
The First Lady herself is not included in the court case. Claimants indicated they do not think she was responsible, but alleged the blockchain organizations of leveraging her and other prominent figures as a facade for their fraudulent schemes.
Exchange Platform Role
In newly filed federal filings, investors accuse officials of the Meteora trading platform, where $MELANIA was originally listed, of establishing a scheme that enabled them to secretly buy substantial volumes of the cryptocurrency.
Their partners then promptly liquidated these digital currencies, securing large returns while triggering the value to crash, per papers submitted in Manhattan federal court.
Broader Context
The claims regarding the Melania token have been added to legal proceedings involving several other digital currencies, which began in spring.
The Trump organization has reportedly secured over a billion dollars in pre-tax profits from various blockchain-associated enterprises and organizations over the last year.
