$MELANIA Lightning Buy Triggers $100M Surge in Just 150 Seconds: Financial Times

A small group of digital wallets acquired MELANIA coins just minutes before the official announcement.These wallets acquired 16.7 million tokens for $2.6 million just 150 seconds before her post, selling most of them within hours as the token price surged.An analysis by the Financial Times reveals that a select group of traders pocketed a $99.6 million windfall by purchasing Melania Trump’s cryptocurrency token, MELANIA, moments before its public unveiling. This raises questions about insider information and market manipulation in the largely unregulated memecoin space.Details of the Pre-Launch PurchasesMelania Trump announced the MELANIA coin on social media on January 19, shortly before her husband’s US presidential inauguration. Within the two and a half minutes before her Truth Social post, two dozen digital wallets spent $2.6 million buying tokens from the cryptocurrency marketplace. These early buyers capitalised on the surge in price following Melania’s announcement. They quickly sold off most of their holdings; 81% of the sales occurred within 12 hours.While cryptocurrency transactions can be tracked on blockchains, the identities of the individuals or entities controlling the wallets remain largely anonymous. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to determine whether the pre-launch purchases were based on privileged information.The MELANIA memecoin launched a couple of days after Donald Trump launched his own TRUMP token. These launches occurred as the Trump family and associates have been involved in several crypto ventures.One wallet spent $681,000 on the memecoin 64 seconds before the public announcement. Within 24 hours, the account had made $39 million from sales, and an additional $4.4 million over the next three days. In total, these 24 accounts bought 16.7 million of the 200 million MELANIA tokens available during the launch.Unlike the TRUMP coin, the MELANIA coin saw a wave of pre-announcement sales. About $900,000 worth of tokens were bought by an additional 22 accounts in the 42 seconds after the launch. The price of MELANIA peaked within 10 hours and then fell. Roughly 40% of Donald Trump’s total net worth, which is estimated at $2.9 billion, is currently held in cryptocurrency, according to the nonprofit group State Democracy Defenders Action. A separate analysis from blockchain firm Chainalysis found that the creators of the $TRUMP stablecoin have reportedly earned $320 million in trading fees linked to the token.Democratic lawmakers have criticised Trump and his family for their involvement with cryptocurrency since his return to office in January. Earlier this week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced legislation titled the MEME Act, which aims to ban sitting presidents and members of Congress from launching their memecoins. Murphy, in a video shared on X, argued that memecoins could allow politicians to receive covert financial kickbacks in return for political favours. “Trump’s memecoin is the most unethical, the most corrupt thing a president of the United States has ever done,” Murphy said.Hayden Davis, a crypto entrepreneur, has said he was involved in the launch of $MELANIA. Davis, who was also involved in the launch of the $LIBRA memecoin, told Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffeezilla: “There was no money made from the Melania team. We didn’t take any liquidity out. Zero.”The Financial Times analysis estimates are based on tracking subsequent token sales from the wallets. The prices were estimated based on a rate of $144.68 per Solana token. Of the $99.6mn made by the 24 accounts, $88.7mn of the purchases were made in exchange for USDC. MELANIA is currently trading at $0.3355, up 3.16% in the last 24 hours. The post $MELANIA Lightning Buy Triggers $100M Surge in Just 150 Seconds: Financial Times appeared first on ETHNews.