First Lady's Meme Coin Architects Hit with Market Manipulation Scam Lawsuit
The designers responsible for a cryptocurrency launched by US First Lady Melania Trump are now accused in court filings of planning a market manipulation plot.
Initial Launch and Price Surge
The $MELANIA tokens were issued for under a dollar each on the 19th of January, the day before former President Trump assumed the presidency.
Alongside the $MELANIA coin, Trump himself released his $TRUMP coin just ahead of the presidential inauguration.
In a matter of hours, the market value of the $MELANIA coin soared to nearly $14 per token.
Sudden Collapse in Price
Nevertheless, the price plummeted just as rapidly, and currently stands at less than 15 cents – less than one percent of its peak price.
In parallel, the $TRUMP token reached a peak of nearly forty-six dollars and presently sells for under six dollars.
Court Claims and Investors' Arguments
The plaintiffs claim that the currency's developers planned the scheme aware that the token's worth would crash.
The First Lady herself is not included in the legal action. Investors indicated they do not consider she was at fault, but alleged the blockchain organizations of leveraging her and other well-known personalities as a facade for their criminal operations.
Trading Venue Role
In newly filed court papers, claimants accuse officials of the Meteora trading platform, where the First Lady's token was first exchanged, of setting up a plan that enabled them to indirectly purchase large quantities of the digital token.
Associated individuals then rapidly offloaded these digital currencies, earning significant gains while triggering the price to plummet, as stated in papers submitted in New York federal court.
Broader Context
The allegations concerning the First Lady's coin have been incorporated into judicial actions involving several other cryptocurrencies, which commenced in spring.
The Trump organization has reportedly earned in excess of $1 billion in pre-tax gains from multiple blockchain-associated products and companies over the last year.
