PANews reported on May 6 that according to the Financial Times, there was suspected insider trading on the first day of Melania Trump's MELANIA token listing. In the first three minutes of Trump's announcement of the launch of the token on January 19, more than 20 digital wallets purchased tokens worth $2.6 million, and then sold 81% of their holdings within 12 hours for a profit of nearly $100 million. These wallets are linked on the chain to projects associated with Texas crypto entrepreneur Hayden Davis, but Davis denied participating in the profit to independent investigative reporters. The organizers behind MELANIA reportedly operate through Delaware-based MKT World LLC and have withdrawn $64.7 million in primary sales and fees, not including the $99.6 million accumulated by early traders. Since 2021, Melania Trump has used MKT World for a number of businesses, but her specific role or profit-sharing structure has not yet been clarified. Melania has not yet publicly commented on the market activities or governance of the token.
The media outlet reported that similar wallet patterns also appeared in the LIBRA scandal, indicating that the strategy of using well-known figures for cryptocurrency speculation is common. Despite regulatory loopholes and on-chain anonymity, this incident shows the increasing complexity of political branding in digital assets and the challenges faced by retail participants in the rapidly developing crypto market.
