MELANIA memecoin insiders reportedly make over $150 million including pre-sale trades
By: cryptosheadlines|2025/05/06 17:00:08
0
Share
Airdrop Is Live CaryptosHeadlines Media Has Launched Its Native Token CHT. Airdrop Is Live For Everyone, Claim Instant 5000 CHT Tokens Worth Of $50 USDT. Join the Airdrop at the official website, CryptosHeadlinesToken.com According to Financial Times analysis, a small cohort of traders secured nearly $100 million in profits from Melania Trump’s MELANIA token within minutes of its market debut.Insider trading allegationsIts on-chain analysis suggests that two dozen digital wallets purchased $2.6 million worth of tokens less than three minutes before Trump’s Jan. 19 post on Truth Social announced the coin’s launch.The subsequent price surge enabled rapid liquidation, with 81% of the sales executed within 12 hours.The MELANIA token’s release followed President Donald Trump’s TRUMP coin, launched two days earlier without similar pre-announcement activity. While TRUMP’s distribution began seconds after its official disclosure, the early activity in MELANIA’s case highlights the potential for exploitation during memecoin launches.These tokens, devoid of utility beyond dinner with the president, operate as speculative instruments and are now exempt from securities regulations. Per the SEC’s current view, such trades fall outside federal insider-trading rules.The wallets involved in the pre-launch accumulation of MELANIA have drawn attention for their possible links to Hayden Davis, a Texas-based crypto entrepreneur.Davis, previously associated with the controversial LIBRA token tied to Argentina’s President Javier Milei, denied profiting from the MELANIA release, stating in an interview with independent journalist Stephen Findeisen (Coffeezilla), “There was no money made from the Melania team. Zero.”However, blockchain analysis by FT using Bubblemaps traced early purchases to accounts connected to ventures linked with Davis.Organizers behind MELANIA, operating through Delaware-based MKT World LLC, have reportedly withdrawn $64.7 million in primary sales and fees, separate from the $99.6 million amassed by early traders.MKT World, previously used by Melania Trump for various ventures since 2021, has yet to clarify its precise role or profit-sharing structure. The First Lady has not commented publicly on the token’s market activity or governance.Melania Trump and cryptoVolatility around MELANIA has been punctuated by prior controversies and trading frenzies linked to Trump-family-branded tokens.In the first 24 hours after futures trading launched, perpetual trading across TRUMP and MELANIA exceeded $50 billion, with MELANIA-USDT open interest spiking 56% in just 90 minutes. Solana’s network struggled under the load, recording 10 million transactions and $1.25 billion in volume, while services such as Phantom and Coinbase faced throttling due to congestion.Weeks later, developer-linked wallets were traced selling over 31 million MELANIA through unilateral liquidity provisioning, driving a steep drop from a peak of $13 to $0.38 before a modest recovery.Further, prior ventures involving Melania Trump’s digital initiatives had faced scrutiny, including allegations of wash trading tied to her “Head of State” NFT in 2022 and an NFT-based philanthropy pitch announced in 2024 targeting foster care programs.The rapid and lucrative trading around MELANIA further reflects the volatility of politically connected tokens.The Financial Times reported that similar wallet patterns appeared in the LIBRA scandal, suggesting a recurring strategy of leveraging high-profile figures for crypto speculation.Ethical concerns have also emerged, with former CFTC chair Tim Massad calling the involvement of presidential families in commercial tokens “plainly wrong” due to potential conflicts of interest.The price of MELANIA stabilized at approximately $0.32 as of May 5, placing the 800 million tokens retained by organizers at a notional valuation near $260 million.The token’s unlock schedule began on Feb. 19, releasing 3% of the supply, with monthly distributions of 2.25% planned thereafter.Despite regulatory gaps and anonymity on-chain, the episode illustrates the growing complexity surrounding political branding in digital assets and the challenges facing retail participants in rapidly evolving crypto markets.Mentioned in this articleSource link
You may also like

WLFI at it Again? Banking License Controversy Amid $500M Investment
The UAE's investment in World Liberty Financial has heightened concerns over whether it received special treatment and whether national security issues are involved

The Aave civil war escalates, Morpho quietly doubles: Is the lending throne about to change hands?
Wall Street asset management giant Apollo Global Management invested $160 million in Morpho.

Dune Stablecoin Research: The Flow and Demand of a $300 Billion Market
In the dataset, transfers are no longer simply labeled as pure "transaction volume," but are classified as different on-chain activities. This is the difference between "just knowing that $100 trillion has been transferred" and "understanding why it was transferred."

Stripe Annual Letter: New cognitive density is extremely high, especially the 5-level model of "AI + Payments"
Every trend here is affecting everyone's future survival.

Sam Altman's Twenty-Four Hours: The Pentagon said "no" twice, but only one was serious
In Silicon Valley, Altman's sub-12-hour move has a name. It's not called backstabbing, it's called timing.

The US-Iran Conflict Spreads to the Crypto Space: What to Expect in the Market on Monday
The most important industry in the crypto world, only 300 kilometers away from the missile's impact point

Lily Liu, the chair of the Solana Foundation, shouted "Don't waste time on crypto," is the crypto industry really dead?
The interest of the younger generation is shifting from cryptocurrency to the field of artificial intelligence, which coincides with the current phenomenon in the cryptocurrency industry.

The little deer live by the water and grass
Mining companies have never been the most devout believers in Bitcoin. Under the pressures of halving compressing profits, financial reports showing revenue growth without profit increase, and coin prices falling below mining costs, the industry is collectively de-risking.

The world belongs to Chinese people who speak English
The world is vast, and only playing half of it is truly a loss.

Why Stop at 126K? Michael Saylor Breaks Down BTC Stagnation and Retail Absence Truth
Bitcoin is digital capital, and I will spend a thousand hours explaining it to you. Eventually, you will understand, but you will still have to endure a 45% crash.

Virtuals Protocol's inaugural Titan project: ROBO aims to give a wallet to a robot
This is a key step in Virtuals expanding the Agent Economy into the Embodied AI and Robotics field.

Stablecoin Latest Report: Actual Distribution and Circulation Much More Notable Than Supply
The Truth about Stablecoin Circulation Speed, Concentration, and Structure After Doubling the Supply

Paradigm's New Arithmetic: When Crypto Can't Hold 12.7 Billion, AI Becomes the Answer
It took Paradigm three years to emerge from the ruins of FTX.

Wintermute Founder: In the Lost Cryptocurrency Market, What Can We Still Do?
This is more like a manifesto, discussing "the very reason we are here."

$1.3 Billion Debt: BitDeer Faces Tough Battle
Wu Jihan is waiting for AI's money to catch up with the speed of debt.

Anthropic's IPO Gamble: At the Most Unlikely Moment, It Chose to Say No
In the AI Era, what is the most valuable thing?

Paradigm's Math Problem: $12.7 Billion, Too Big for a Single Crypto Fund
Emerging from the ruins of FTX, Paradigm took three years

Ethereum Unveils Scaling Roadmap, What's Different This Time?
Short-term improvements to execution efficiency through the Gas mechanism optimization and block validation parallelization, and long-term scalability through ZK-EVM and blobs data architecture.
WLFI at it Again? Banking License Controversy Amid $500M Investment
The UAE's investment in World Liberty Financial has heightened concerns over whether it received special treatment and whether national security issues are involved
The Aave civil war escalates, Morpho quietly doubles: Is the lending throne about to change hands?
Wall Street asset management giant Apollo Global Management invested $160 million in Morpho.
Dune Stablecoin Research: The Flow and Demand of a $300 Billion Market
In the dataset, transfers are no longer simply labeled as pure "transaction volume," but are classified as different on-chain activities. This is the difference between "just knowing that $100 trillion has been transferred" and "understanding why it was transferred."
Stripe Annual Letter: New cognitive density is extremely high, especially the 5-level model of "AI + Payments"
Every trend here is affecting everyone's future survival.
Sam Altman's Twenty-Four Hours: The Pentagon said "no" twice, but only one was serious
In Silicon Valley, Altman's sub-12-hour move has a name. It's not called backstabbing, it's called timing.
The US-Iran Conflict Spreads to the Crypto Space: What to Expect in the Market on Monday
The most important industry in the crypto world, only 300 kilometers away from the missile's impact point