Melania Trump crypto accused of pump-and-dump scheme
Investors filed court documents on Tuesday accusing cryptocurrency exchange executives of orchestrating a scheme around First Lady Melania Trump’s digital coin. The $MELANIA token launched on Jan. 19 for pennies and surged to $13.73 before crashing to roughly 10 cents. Court papers claim Meteora platform leaders bought massive quantities through intermediaries who rapidly sold them for profits while tanking prices.
The allegations joined existing litigation against several cryptocurrencies that began in April at the Manhattan federal court. Plaintiffs said they consider Trump blameless but claim crypto firms exploited her recognition to mask wrongdoing. President Donald Trump introduced his own $TRUMP coin hours before taking office, while his sons helped launch World Liberty Financial’s $550 million WLFI token sale. The Financial Times reported the Trump family earned over $1 billion pretax from cryptocurrency ventures across 12 months.
