First Lady's Digital Currency Architects Facing Market Manipulation Scam Legal Action
The designers responsible for a virtual coin released by First Lady of the United States Melania Trump are now accused in court filings of planning a pump-and-dump scheme.
Coin Release and Value Spike
The $MELANIA coins were issued for a minimal price each on January 19, just prior to Donald Trump took office.
Alongside the First Lady's token, Trump himself introduced his personal token just ahead of the swearing-in event.
In a matter of hours, the market value of the $MELANIA token soared to $13.73 per unit.
Rapid Decline in Value
Yet, the price plummeted almost as quickly, and presently trades for less than 15 cents – below 1% of its highest value.
Meanwhile, the $TRUMP coin hit a high of $45.47 and presently sells for approximately five seventy-nine.
Court Claims and Investors' Arguments
The claimants allege that the currency's developers planned the maneuver conscious that the token's worth would crash.
Mrs. Trump herself is not mentioned in the lawsuit. Investors clarified they do not think she was culpable, but accused the digital currency firms of using her and other well-known personalities as a cover for their criminal operations.
Trading Venue Involvement
As per fresh court papers, investors accuse executives of the Meteora cryptocurrency exchange, where the First Lady's token was originally listed, of setting up a operation that allowed them to indirectly purchase significant amounts of the cryptocurrency.
Associated individuals then rapidly offloaded these virtual tokens, earning significant gains while causing the price to plummet, as stated in papers submitted in New York federal court.
Broader Context
The charges concerning $MELANIA have been added to judicial actions involving various other virtual tokens, which commenced in April.
The Trump organization has allegedly secured over one billion dollars in pre-tax profits from various digital currency-linked products and companies over the last year.
