The Financial Times analyst noticed that millions of dollars’ worth of MELANIA memetoken were bought minutes before the launch. Investigation reveals the details of the purchases and estimates combined profits at $99.6 million.
The MELANIA token was launched on Jan. 19, 2025, two days after the launch of the Official Trump token and only one day before Donald Trump’s inauguration. Lack of transparency, conflict of interests, and emphasis on the gambling aspect of cryptocurrencies are only a few reasons why the Trump pair’s tokens launch caused displeasure in the crypto community. Both $TRUMP and $MELANIA are Solana-based memecoins with little to no use case.
What is known about pre-launch sales?
The token launch was announced by Melania Trump on Truth Social on Jan. 19. Digesting the blockchain data, an FT analyst noticed that two and a half minutes before the post went live, 24 wallets received $2.6 million worth of $MELANIA. They bought 16,700,000 out of 200,000,000 $MELANIA, or 33.4% of the total supply. The holders of these wallets remain unknown.
As the token launch announcement was published, the $MELANIA price skyrocketed. Within the following 12 hours, investors who bought the token cheap before the launch sold 81% of their holdings.
One specific account invested $681,000 in $MELANIA in a single transaction just a minute before the first announcement of the memecoin launch. Selling most of the $MELANIA tokens the same day, the investor enjoyed $39 million in profits. Within the following three days, they gained $4.4 million more.
According to FT, the wallets participating in pre-launch purchases don’t belong to the MELANIA team, which allegedly fixed profits at $64,700,000.
Although this purchase can’t be called 100% fair, it doesn’t break the law protecting the securities investors as memecoins do not qualify as securities in the U.S. Clarifying the legal status of memecoins which saw a boom at the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, the SEC’s guidance issued in February 2025 noted that these tokens are “more akin to collectibles” and the laws regulating securities do not apply to them.
The team behind $MELANIA
Officially, the First Lady’s memecoin is managed by her Florida-registered company, MKT World LLC. Melania Trump has used this firm since 2021 for various enterprises. The exact role of MKT World in MELANIA memecoin is not clear, though. According to the Melania Meme website, the team owns 30% of the supply, while 30% is held in the treasury, 20% is intended for the community, and the remaining 20% is available for public use.
The team behind the MELANIA memecoin was suspected of sniping various memecoins after capitalizing on the MELANIA token. Sniping refers to using automated tools to make instant purchases of fresh memecoins before their prices go up. According to the report released in February, the MELANIA team made $2.4 million through sniping the First Lady-themed memecoin.
According to Bubblemaps analysts, the address used for it is allegedly associated with other successful sniping operations. The 0xcEAe address was used to withdraw $2.4 million after MELANIA sniping and distribute it between the Avalanche and Arbitrum addresses. The same address is associated with $LIBRA token sniping. On top of that, Bubblemaps analysts associate involved addresses with multiple pump-and-dump operations.
$MELANIA vs $TRUMP
The FT report emphasizes that the story of the MELANIA token is different from the story of Official Trump. The latter token was launched by a different team and grossed $350 million through fees and token sales.
The latest data from Chainalysis indicates that after the launch of the Official Trump memecoin, 58 wallets gained $10 million in $TRUMP each. The total profit amounted to $1.1 billion. The same report reveals that around 764,000 wallets, holding mostly small amounts of $TRUMP, lost money as a result of investment. The total number of wallets involved in the $TRUMP investment is estimated at two million. Reportedly, 80% of the token’s supply is controlled by the team behind the token.
Different price trajectories of these tokens differently affected the holdings belonging to the teams–holdings of the $TRUMP team get bigger as the price enjoys occasional spikes. In contrast, the $MELANIA price has been pretty low all the time since it dropped shortly after the launch. As of press time, $MELANIA is traded at around 32 cents, 97% below its ATH, which was $13.73 on the very first day on the market.
Conclusion
Solana tokens, launched by the Trumps not long before the inauguration, leave a bitter taste. Some see these memecoins as a convenient way to bribe top officials by foreign entities, while others believe these tokens were made for insider trading.
Both projects lack transparency, but it’s clear that the identification of holders of these 24 wallets may be lucrative for Donald Trump’s political enemies.
