$MELANIA Makes $TRUMP Fall By 50%. So How Safe Is It?

The US First Lady launched the MELANIA meme coin just two days after Trump’s own meme coin launched. The token gained over a $1 billion market cap, but its tokenomics shows major concerns.

It has been one of the craziest weekends in the crypto industry. Just three days before his inauguration, US President Donald Trump launched his own meme coin, TRUMP. In two days, the TRUMP meme coin surged over 1,000% and recorded a market cap of $13billion.

If this wasn’t shocking enough, the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, also launched her meme coin – MELANIA. Although most of the crypto community thought this was fake, and her X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked, the president himself retweeted the post. More importantly, TRUMP meme coin holders started selling their tokens to buy MELANIA, causing the token to crash nearly 50%.

Just 10 hours later, the MELANIA meme coin is sitting at a $1.4bn market cap. Here’s everything you need to know about this shocking yet very much real meme coin.

What is the MELANIA meme coin?

Melania Trump introduced her own cryptocurrency, the MELANIA meme coin, on 19 January, less than a day before Trump’s inauguration. While the TRUMP meme coin was launched on Solana, MELANIA launched on the Ethereum network.

MELANIA has already been listed by some of the major centralized exchanges, such as Bitget, Kraken, and KuCoin. However, there are big questions about the meme coin’s tokenomics. Trump’s token was already under a lot of scrutiny because 80% of the tokens were locked by the developers, but this one is even worse.

MELANIA tokenomics overview

• Total supply: The exact total supply of MELANIA tokens has not been publicly disclosed.
• Public distribution: At launch, only 15% of the total $MELANIA tokens were made available to the public.
• Team vesting and treasury: The remaining 85% of the tokens are allocated to team vesting and the project’s treasury.

Key concerns

1. Centralized ownership: With 85% of the tokens reserved for the team and treasury, a significant portion of the supply is controlled by Melania Trump and her associates. Such concentration can lead to market manipulation, where the controlling entities might influence the token’s price by releasing or withholding tokens.
2. Lack of transparency: The absence of detailed information regarding the total supply and the specific vesting schedule for the team’s tokens raises questions about the project’s transparency. Investors may find it challenging to assess the potential risks without clear data on when and how the reserved tokens will enter the market.
3. Potential conflicts of interest: Given Melania Trump’s public profile and her husband’s political position, the project could be perceived as leveraging their status for personal financial gain. This perception might undermine investor confidence and attract regulatory scrutiny, especially if the token is seen as a means to capitalize on their political influence.

What’s next?

The new US President and first lady launching their tokens set a precedent that almost anyone can create a meme coin without considering its potential impact or value. We’re likely to see a lot of other political figures and celebrities launch their own meme coins in the coming weeks or months. The fact that the US President and his family shilled the entire meme coin sector, all other parties would want to grab a share of this pie.

However, users must remember that the majority of these tokens do not hold any technical value like Ethereum or Solana. They are not part of any community or ecosystem and can therefore be extremely volatile. For instance, after the MELANIA meme coin launched, TRUMP dropped by nearly 50%, as users liquidated their funds to gain an advantage on the new token. That’s how quickly this market can change. All crypto is volatile, however, meme coins are at the extreme end.

Therefore, it’s advised not to invest in such tokens if they are not prepared to lose the majority or all of their investments. Most importantly, the celebrity meme coin space is filled with scams, so due diligence is critical.