Melania Trump resurfaces with AI promo for MELANIA token despite 95% crash

Melania Trump is back promoting her Solana-based meme coin, MelaniaMEME, to her millions of followers on X, after months of silence during which the project drew in insider selling allegations. As of this writing, the MELANIA token is trading more than 95% below its all-time high. Cashing in on the artificial intelligence trend, the US First Lady shared a surprise video made using AI-generated visuals where she promoted MELANIA as the “path into the future.” MELANIA promoted by on Melania Trump’s X account. Source: Melania Trump on X . The timing was no coincidence as the post went live just as crypto markets began heating up again under the “Uptober” narrative, with traders looking for high-beta plays to ride the wave. Melania tagged the official token account in her post, making her first public push in months just as sentiment around Solana meme coins was starting to recover. Although the campaign’s tone was quite polished, the community remained skeptical, notably because the first lady had failed to address any of the mounting controversy surrounding the token themed around her. Observers quickly pointed out that Melania made no effort to address the unresolved concerns from earlier this year, particularly the many large transactions that were flagged over the past months from wallets tied to the project’s team. MELANIA insiders dumped millions Those concerns go back to April, when blockchain analysts at Bubblemaps flagged that nearly $30 million worth of MELANIA tokens were moved from community funds and quietly sold across multiple wallets. The tokens were split and shuffled before millions made their way to exchanges. Bubblemaps also pointed out that an overwhelming 92% of the token supply appeared to be held by team wallets. Over the next few months, those wallets continued to offload tokens even as the price continued to crash . On-chain data showed that between April and June, over 82 million MELANIA tokens were sold by 44 wallets, netting more than $35 million in SOL. Analysts noted that much of the selling was carried out through liquidity manipulation, adding and removing liquidity from pools in a way that avoids triggering large market moves. The approach allowed the team to exit significant positions without drawing immediate attention. Soon after, a Financial Times report flagged suspicious activity recorded moments before the token’s official launch . Just two and a half minutes before Melania’s announcement post on Truth Social, a group of 24 wallets acquired 33% of the total MELANIA supply. Although these wallets were not officially linked to Melania’s company, MKT World LLC, analysts noted that the team behind the project also made millions sniping other meme tokens, including Melania-themed ones, through wallets tied to known pump and dump schemes. The wallet address 0xcEAe, which has been linked to MELANIA’s creators, was found to have participated in similar activity with the failed LIBRA token and distributed proceeds across the Avalanche and Arbitrum chains. While Melania’s renewed post has sparked some buzz, traders would do well to remain cautious. Why? See below. MELANIA price action since launch. Source. CoinMarketCap. The post Melania Trump resurfaces with AI promo for MELANIA token despite 95% crash appeared first on Invezz