Money Grab/Profit from his own market-moving decisions
MELANIA meme coin launches amid insider-trading reports
Melania Trump announced a meme coin in her name on January 19, 2025. A Financial Times analysis later found that 24 wallets bought $2.6 million of it minutes before her public post and sold for about $99.6 million. Organizers linked to the coin withdrew about $64.7 million in sales and fees.
What happened
On January 19, 2025, the night before the inauguration, Melania Trump announced $MELANIA, a meme coin on the Solana blockchain, two days after the launch of $TRUMP. The token’s terms name MKT World LLC, a Florida company she incorporated in 2021, as the seller.
In May 2025 the Financial Times found that 24 wallets bought about $2.6 million of the token roughly two and a half minutes before her Truth Social post and later sold for about $99.6 million. They sold 81% of it within 12 hours, mostly converted to the USDC stablecoin. One wallet spent $681,000 64 seconds before the announcement and made $39 million within a day.
Organizers linked to the coin withdrew about $64.7 million in primary sales and fees, CryptoSlate reported, citing the FT. Analysts at Bubblemaps traced the $681,000 wallet’s funding to an account used in projects of Hayden Davis, who denied any direct gains. How the $64.7 million is shared has not been disclosed.
Who benefited
The unidentified wallets that bought before the announcement took in about $99.6 million. The organizers linked to the coin withdrew about $64.7 million in sales and fees. How much of that reached the Trump family is not public, so the record logs it but does not count it as family cash.
Who wanted something
No counterparty with business before the government appears in the record. The buyers were traders in a token bearing the first lady’s name. The ones who did best bought in the minutes and seconds before the public post, which points to advance knowledge.
Who lost out
Buyers who came in after the announcement supplied the $99.6 million the early wallets realized, by buying as the price peaked. The token later lost most of its value. No public money was involved.
Why it matters
Someone knew about the first lady’s coin before the public did and made roughly $100 million on that knowledge. The coin produced $64.7 million in sales and fees for its organizers. For stocks, buying on advance knowledge of an announcement is insider trading; meme coins are not regulated as securities, and no one has been charged.
Sources CryptoSlate (citing Financial Times)FortuneCointelegraphBitcoin.com News