According to Financial Times analysis, a small cohort of traders secured nearly $100 million in profits from Melania Trump’s MELANIA token within minutes of its market debut.
Insider trading allegations
Its on-chain analysis suggests that two dozen digital wallets purchased $2.6 million worth of tokens less than three minutes before Trump’s Jan. 19 post on Truth Social announced the coin’s launch.
The subsequent price surge enabled rapid liquidation, with 81% of the sales executed within 12 hours.
The MELANIA token’s release followed President Donald Trump’s TRUMP coin, launched two days earlier without similar pre-announcement activity. While TRUMP’s distribution began seconds after its official disclosure, the early activity in MELANIA’s case highlights the potential for exploitation during memecoin launches.
These tokens, devoid of utility beyond dinner with the president, operate as speculative instruments and are now exempt from securities regulations. Per the SEC’s current view, such trades fall outside federal insider-trading rules.
The wallets involved in the pre-launch accumulation of MELANIA have drawn attention for their possible links to Hayden Davis, a Texas-based crypto entrepreneur.
Davis, previously associated with the controversial LIBRA token tied to Argentina’s President Javier Milei, denied profiting from the MELANIA release, stating in an interview with independent journalist Stephen Findeisen (Coffeezilla), “There was no money made from the Melania team. Zero.”
However, blockchain analysis by FT using Bubblemaps traced early purchases to accounts connected to ventures linked with Davis.
Organizers behind MELANIA, operating through Delaware-based MKT World LLC, have reportedly withdrawn $64.7 million in primary sales and fees, separate from the $99.6 million amassed by early traders.
MKT World, previously used by Melania Trump for various ventures since 2021, has yet to clarify its precise role or profit-sharing structure. The First Lady has not commented publicly on the token’s market activity or governance.
Melania Trump and crypto
Volatility around MELANIA has been punctuated by prior controversies and trading frenzies linked to Trump-family-branded tokens.
In the first 24 hours after futures trading launched, perpetual trading across TRUMP and MELANIA exceeded $50 billion, with MELANIA-USDT open interest spiking 56% in just 90 minutes. Solana’s network struggled under the load, recording 10 million transactions and $1.25 billion in volume, while services such as Phantom and Coinbase faced throttling due to congestion.
Weeks later, developer-linked wallets were traced selling over 31 million MELANIA through unilateral liquidity provisioning, driving a steep drop from a peak of $13 to $0.38 before a modest recovery.
Further, prior ventures involving Melania Trump’s digital initiatives had faced scrutiny, including allegations of wash trading tied to her “Head of State” NFT in 2022 and an NFT-based philanthropy pitch announced in 2024 targeting foster care programs.
The rapid and lucrative trading around MELANIA further reflects the volatility of politically connected tokens.
The Financial Times reported that similar wallet patterns appeared in the LIBRA scandal, suggesting a recurring strategy of leveraging high-profile figures for crypto speculation.
Ethical concerns have also emerged, with former CFTC chair Tim Massad calling the involvement of presidential families in commercial tokens “plainly wrong” due to potential conflicts of interest.
The price of MELANIA stabilized at approximately $0.32 as of May 5, placing the 800 million tokens retained by organizers at a notional valuation near $260 million.
The token’s unlock schedule began on Feb. 19, releasing 3% of the supply, with monthly distributions of 2.25% planned thereafter.
Despite regulatory gaps and anonymity on-chain, the episode illustrates the growing complexity surrounding political branding in digital assets and the challenges facing retail participants in rapidly evolving crypto markets.
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