Melania Trump's Meme Coin Creators Facing Pump-and-Dump Fraud Lawsuit
The developers behind a virtual coin introduced by US First Lady Melania Trump are now alleged in court filings of planning a fraudulent operation.
Initial Launch and Price Surge
The $MELANIA coins were released for just a few cents each on January 19, one day preceding Donald Trump was inaugurated.
Together with the Melania cryptocurrency, Donald Trump introduced his own digital currency a few hours before the swearing-in event.
Within hours, the market value of the $MELANIA token skyrocketed to over $13 per coin.
Sudden Collapse in Price
However, the price plummeted just as rapidly, and is now only about 10 cents – less than 1% of its maximum worth.
Meanwhile, the $TRUMP token reached a peak of over forty-five dollars and now trades for $5.79.
Court Claims and Plaintiffs' Position
The claimants claim that the token's architects executed the scheme knowing that the cryptocurrency's price would decline sharply.
Melania Trump personally is not named in the legal action. The plaintiffs clarified they do not believe she was responsible, but accused the crypto companies of exploiting her and other familiar faces as a cover for their illegal activities.
Trading Venue Involvement
As per fresh legal documents, claimants allege leaders of the Meteora cryptocurrency exchange, where Melania's coin was originally listed, of establishing a scheme that enabled them to secretly buy substantial volumes of the digital token.
Associated individuals then rapidly offloaded these virtual tokens, earning significant gains while leading to the price to plummet, per papers submitted in Manhattan federal court.
Wider Proceedings
The claims regarding $MELANIA have been included in court cases concerning various other cryptocurrencies, which started in the month of April.
The Trump organization has allegedly generated over one billion dollars in pre-tax earnings from various blockchain-associated products and companies over the past 12 months.
