A handful of traders bought first lady Melania Trump’s memecoin before it went public, and in the process secured a $99.6 million windfall.
A majority of the $99.6 million cashed out by the wallets was exchanged for USDC, a so-called stablecoin tied to the price of the U.S. dollar, the FT reported. It’s unclear how many people were behind the two dozen wallets.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Memecoins, like $MELANIA and President Donald Trump’s $TRUMP coin, are vehicles for speculation that are not backed by another asset. This type of cryptocurrency is not classified as a security under U.S. financial regulations. The Trump administration has adopted a lighter touch on regulation of the crypto industry compared to the Biden administration, and many of the biggest U.S. crypto firms donated to President Trump’s inaugural committee.
Once Melania Trump announced her own coin, hours before President Trump was inaugurated, the wallets sprung into action, taking advantage of a price spike to offload their holdings. In all, the wallets sold 81% of their coins in the first 12 hours of the public sale.
One wallet, which alone bought $681,000 worth of $MELANIA precisely 64 seconds before the coin was made public, took advantage of the early euphoria and sold much of its holdings in 24 hours, netting a $39 million payday. It made another $4 million in the next three days offloading the rest.
Another account made $2.5 million by selling most of the $40,000 worth of coins it bought 141 seconds before launch.
“Trump’s memecoin is the most unethical, the most corrupt thing a president of the United States has ever done,” Murphy said.
