tl;dr
Blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps reported that over $30 million worth of Melania Meme (MELANIA) tokens, linked to U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, were quietly sold after being moved from community funds. The tokens, based on the Solana blockchain, were transferred to a specific wallet and then sp...
More than $30 million worth of Melania Meme (MELANIA) tokens, linked to U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, have been quietly sold, with on-chain analysis revealing movement of assets and lack of transparency from the project team. Hayden Davis, associated with MELANIA and LIBRA tokens, is linked to a pattern of pump and dump style meme coins, leading to concerns of insider trading and unethical market behavior in the crypto space. The MELANIA token, launched after Trump’s inauguration, has seen a significant price drop, echoing the trajectory of the Official Trump (TRUMP) meme coin, raising questions about fairness, legitimacy, and market integrity in the crypto industry.
Blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps reported that over $30 million worth of Melania Meme (MELANIA) tokens, linked to U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, were quietly sold after being moved from community funds. The tokens, based on the Solana blockchain, were transferred to a specific wallet and then split across multiple addresses. Substantial amounts were sent to exchanges, new positions were opened, and a portion of the tokens was already sold. With 92% of the token supply held in team wallets, retail investors are at risk. Hayden Davis, associated with the project, has been linked to a pattern of pump and dump schemes. The lack of transparency and the ongoing token offloading raise concerns about market fairness and investor confidence in the crypto space. The MELANIA token's value has plummeted, mirroring a similar trend seen with the Official Trump (TRUMP) meme coin. Bubblemaps cautioned that the situation may have more repercussions in the future. Big names and bigger dumps. Blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps reported Monday that more than $30 million worth of Melania Meme (MELANIA), a meme coin linked to U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, have been moved and “quietly sold.” On-chain analysis revealed the Solana-based tokens were taken from community funds, and neither the project team nor “launch strategist” Hayden Davis has yet offered any explanation for the movement of the assets. In total, 50 million MELANIA tokens were funneled to wallet “Cq2Tj6,” then split across multiple addresses. More than $3 million was sent to centralized exchanges, two new $6 million positions were opened, and $500,000 has already been sold,
“No one from the MELANIA team has addressed this. Not the movements. Not the selling,” the firm said. Decrypt has reached out to Hayden Davis through his brother Gideon, and will update this story if and when it receives a response. The lack of transparency follows an earlier $2 million sell-off reported last week, using single-sided liquidity, “the same tactic” employed by Davis during the LIBRA token collapse in February, Bubblemaps added. Davis, who previously admitted to launching both MELANIA and LIBRA, has been linked to a broader pattern of pump and dump style meme coins . With team wallets controlling 92% of the MELANIA supply, retail investors are left exposed. In collaboration with YouTuber Coffeezilla, Bubblemaps connected Davis to a network of wallets moving funds between MELANIA, LIBRA, and other tokens. Bubblemaps speculated that Davis “may have seen the recent drop in attention as a window to quietly move funds while fewer people were watching.” Dominika Stobiecka, co-founder of token compliance platform Toku, previously shared with Decrypt that this kind of behavior is akin to traditional insider trading, and it’s already illegal. “The system is built on the principle that even if you’re an outsider—meaning you don’t have access to non-public, internal information—you can still invest safely, Stobiecka said. “For the market to function, people must believe in its fairness.” Stobiecka warned that insider behavior in crypto isn’t just unethical, saying it risks turning markets into a “rigged game” where “retail investors lose confidence, participation drops, and the entire system suffers.” The MELANIA token, launched in January after Trump’s inauguration as President, briefly surged past $12 before