A recent series of significant sell-offs associated with the creators of the Melania meme coin (MELANIA) has sparked new worries about insider activities within the project. These actions have caused the token's value to plummet to a record low, down by a substantial 97% from its peak on Trump's inauguration day earlier in the year.
The heavy selling was identified on April 19 when on-chain analyst EmberCN revealed that wallets linked to the project had sold close to 3 million MELANIA tokens, receiving roughly 9,009 SOL in exchange, equivalent to about $1.2 million. These tokens were traded through a one-sided liquidity provision added to the MELANIA/SOL trading pair on Meteora.
This transaction is part of a larger trend, as in the last three days, the MELANIA team reportedly moved 7.64 million tokens, valued at around $3.21 million, from both community and liquidity wallets. These tokens were consistently added to the same liquidity pool and sold for SOL within a specified price range, with 2.95 million tokens sold shortly before EmberCN's disclosure.
EmberCN highlighted that the project team has sold more than 23 million MELANIA tokens in the past month, totaling approximately $14.75 million. These repeated sales reinforce concerns about internal dumping that initially surfaced in March.
The movement of considerable amounts of MELANIA tokens without clear reasons has raised suspicions about potential market manipulation, especially given that wallets associated with the MELANIA team control around 92% of the token's total supply. This high level of centralization has heightened worries about the project's legitimacy.
As a consequence of these developments, the price of MELANIA has experienced a sharp decline, dropping from over $13 to a record low of $0.38, representing a decrease of more than 96%. The weakened performance of MELANIA is indicative of both internal issues and broader uncertainties in the meme coin sector, as investors are becoming more hesitant in light of global instabilities and a cautious market atmosphere.