Melania Trump’s meme coin architects accused of pump-and-dump fraud in lawsuit | Melania Trump

Designers of the cryptocurrency launched by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump in January were accused of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme in court filings on Tuesday.

$MELANIA coins were released for just a few cents each on January 19, the day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president. In addition to $MELANIA, Donald Trump launched $TRUMP just hours before his inauguration.

Within a few hours, the price of $MELANIA coin rose to $13.73.

But it later collapsed almost as quickly and is now worth just 10 cents, less than 1% of its peak price. $TRUMP traded at a peak of $45.47 and is currently trading at $5.79. Coin Market Cap.

The plaintiffs say the creators of the cryptocurrency organized the operation knowing that the value of the digital currency would decline.

Melania Trump’s name is not mentioned in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs said they did not believe he was “guilty” but accused crypto companies of using him and other familiar faces as “window dressing” for their crimes.

In newly filed court documents, investors accuse administrators of the Meteora cryptocurrency exchange platform, where $MELANIA was originally traded, of setting up a scheme that allowed them to indirectly purchase large amounts of virtual currency.

The accomplices then quickly resold these digital currencies, causing the price to plummet while making a significant profit, according to documents filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

The allegations regarding $MELANIA are added to legal proceedings involving many other cryptocurrencies that began in April. Meteora did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump family has pocketed more than $1 billion in pre-tax profits from many cryptocurrency-related products and companies in the past 12 months. Finance Times was reported last week.