First Lady's Meme Coin Creators Facing Market Manipulation Fraud Legal Action
The architects behind a virtual coin released by First Lady of the United States Melania Trump are now charged in federal papers of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme.
Coin Release and Value Spike
The $MELANIA coins were made available for just a few cents each on January 19th, just prior to Donald Trump assumed the presidency.
Together with the $MELANIA coin, Trump himself launched his $TRUMP coin a few hours before the inauguration ceremony.
Within hours, the value of the $MELANIA coin skyrocketed to nearly $14 per unit.
Rapid Decline in Value
Nevertheless, the price plummeted just as rapidly, and is now only about 10 cents – below one percent of its peak price.
At the same time, the $TRUMP token hit a high of over forty-five dollars and presently sells for approximately five seventy-nine.
Court Claims and Investors' Arguments
The claimants allege that the currency's developers organized the operation knowing that the token's worth would crash.
The First Lady herself is not named in the court case. Investors indicated they do not believe she was culpable, but charged the crypto companies of exploiting her and other prominent figures as a facade for their illegal activities.
Exchange Platform Involvement
According to recently submitted legal documents, investors allege officials of the Meteora digital asset exchange, where $MELANIA was originally listed, of creating a scheme that enabled them to discreetly acquire large quantities of the virtual coin.
Their partners then quickly resold these virtual tokens, securing large returns while causing the value to crash, according to documents filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Broader Context
The claims about $MELANIA have been added to court cases involving various other virtual tokens, which commenced in April.
The Trump family has reportedly generated over one billion dollars in pre-tax profits from various blockchain-associated ventures and firms over the last year.
