A new report has revealed that a group of cryptocurrency traders made suspiciously timed transactions in tandem with Donald Trump’s wife Melania’s cryptocurrency token launch—and banked almost $100 million in profits.

Melania revealed the $MELANIA coin on Jan. 19 via TruthSocial, just hours before Trump’s inauguration. Due to the time of the announcement, the token’s visibility shot up, causing its value to rise at a rapid rate. Approximately 81% of the sold coins were purchased within 12 hours of Melania’s announcement.

Two dozen digital wallets purchased large sums of the token – netting a total of $99.6 million – just two and a half minutes before Melania unveiled the currency. One especially striking transaction saw a trader purchase $681,000 in $MELANIA tokens, within a minute of Melania making her announcement. This trader specifically profited $39 million within one day, gaining an extra $4.4 million in the following three days, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Melania had been notably absent from Washington since the inauguration but has been more visible in recent weeks.

The launch of the $TRUMP token two days before Melania’s announcement did not see any purchases made before the launch. 

Memecoins, like $MELANIA, are known to carry a high risk of exploitation, as they are speculative assets and don’t have an intrinsic function or regulatory oversight. Such a lack of regulation puts investors in a significantly risky position from manipulative trading practices. 

$MELANIA is marketed by Melania’s company, MKT World LLC, which has supported a wide variety of her business ventures over the years.

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Article by Baila Eve Zisman

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