A borderless speculation: how presidential tokens have revealed chaos in the meme coin market

Within a few weeks, the Trump family transformed a gala party and two social media announcements into one of the most controversial phenomena of 2025: the launch of TRUMP and MELANIA, two meme coins that have enriched promoters by over $350 million, while hundreds of thousands of small investors suffered catastrophic losses.

The story begins from afar, from the very foundations of a completely unregulated market. And the role of the Trump family was no coincidence: it represents the moment when meme coin speculation reached its peak, dragging along a network of behind-the-scenes operators that no one wanted to publicly acknowledge.

The basics: what are meme coins really

To understand the phenomenon, one must start from the origins. In 2013, two software engineers created Dogecoin as a parody of the proliferation of cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin, using the face of a Shiba Inu as a symbol. What was meant to remain a joke turned into a mass phenomenon when Elon Musk started promoting it.

A meme coin is fundamentally a token without intrinsic value, without a product, without cash flows. It has none of what traditional finance considers essential to evaluate an asset. Yet, its price rises when it attracts attention, creating a perverse dynamic: those who enter early earn enormous sums, while the vast majority of buyers end up with total losses.

It’s a scheme that violates every principle of market efficiency, yet it works. “The reality is that it makes money,” admitted Alon Cohen, co-founder of the Pump.fun platform, in an interview. His platform has helped launch thousands of meme coins and has collected about $1 billion in commissions in the past year.

The simplicity of the mechanism is disarming: anyone can create a token in a few clicks, without technical skills. The price starts from a fraction of a cent and rises according to a predetermined formula as demand grows. If a token attracts enough hype, it gets listed on major exchanges and the price can multiply by one hundred in a few hours.

The weekend that changed everything: the launch of Trump tokens

A few days before the January 2025 presidential inauguration, a surreal scene unfolded during the “Crypto Ball” in Washington. House Speaker Mike Johnson posed for photos with industry lobbyists, influencers shot videos on TikTok, and former Congressman George Santos walked among men in tuxedos as if nothing was happening.

Then, as Snoop Dogg prepared to take the stage, an announcement appeared on Truth Social: Trump had launched a cryptocurrency called “TRUMP.” Within minutes, the price skyrocketed to $74. The same weekend, his wife Melania launched “MELANIA,” which reached $13. Two days later, both tokens began to collapse and never recovered.

In that brief moment of euphoria, the total value of coins held by the Trump family and their associates exceeded $5 billion. According to blockchain analyses, the group may have collected over $350 million in just a few days. By December 10th, TRUMP had fallen 92% from its peak, while MELANIA was nearly worthless.

When asked during a press conference, Trump evasively replied: “Apart from knowing I launched it, I don’t know anything. I just heard it was successful.”

Who was behind it: the hidden network of operators

No one wanted to take official credit, but traces exist. The name that emerges from Delaware documentation is Bill Zanker, a 71-year-old entrepreneur who for decades promoted dubious seminars and failed projects alongside Trump. Zanker does not answer calls or emails.

However, the true network is revealed through blockchain data analysis. A young Argentine crypto consultant named Hayden Davis appears connected to both presidential tokens. Intercepted messages show that Davis coordinated the launch of MELANIA, receiving millions of tokens to distribute strategically to maximize profits.

Before Trump and Melania, Davis had already experimented with the scheme with Argentine President Javier Milei, launching the “Libra” token, which collapsed within hours. When the scandal broke, Davis publicly admitted his involvement in a video, but the plot proved even deeper: behind him were intermediaries from crypto exchange platforms, consultants, and developers providing technical and logistical support.

The intermediary: Meteora and the role of Ming Yeow Ng

The key platform is Meteora, a crypto exchange founded by Ming Yeow Ng, a 40-year-old from Singapore who calls himself “Meow” and uses an avatar of an astronaut cat. According to insider testimonies, Meteora provided technical support for the launch of TRUMP, MELANIA, and LIBRA.

When questioned, Ng claimed that Meteora only provided “technical support” and that the platform does not participate in transactions. He described the meme coin market as “purer” because it simply reflects the value users attribute based on their trust.

“Everything is a meme coin,” Ng exclaimed in a Singapore café, “even the dollar is a meme coin because its value is based on collective faith.” When the conversation shifted to the responsibility for small investors’ losses, he dodged the question: his company, he said, only provides the technology, and does not control how people use it.

Yet blockchain data tell a different story. Independent analysts traced suspicious transactions: someone bought $1.1 million worth of TRUMP in seconds(clearly informed in advance) and sold three days later, earning $100 million. These privileged holders operated through wallets sharing common characteristics with those who launched MELANIA, suggesting a coordinated network.

The whistleblower: how the fraud was orchestrated

The first to break the silence was Moty Povolotski, co-founder of the crypto startup DefiTuna, who chose to cooperate with journalistic investigations. Povolotski revealed that Davis had asked him to manage meme coin transactions, with explicit instructions: “Sell as much as possible, even if the price goes to zero.”

The messages show systematic coordination. For MELANIA, Davis would transfer about 10 million tokens to collaborators, asking them to “sell when the market cap reaches $100 million” and to “operate anonymously.” The same scheme was replicated with LIBRA in Argentina.

A crucial moment emerged when Povolotski recorded a video call with Ben Chow, then CEO of Meteora. In the recording, Chow appears distressed when Povolotski accuses him of coordinating a “pump and dump” scheme, but does not deny his closeness to Davis. He even admits to having introduced Davis to the “Melania team.”

Shortly after, Chow resigned from Meteora. Neither he nor his lawyers responded to requests for comment.

The unregulated market: why no one is responsible

The central question remains: how is it possible that hundreds of millions of dollars were transferred from small investors to promoters in such a short time, with no legal consequences?

The answer lies in the total lack of regulation. The US SEC has simply stated it will not regulate meme coins, merely saying that “other fraud laws may still apply.” No federal prosecutor has filed charges. No court has issued sanctions. New York lawyer Max Burwick has filed civil suits against Pump.fun and against Davis, Chow, and Meteora for “pump and dump,” but proceedings are ongoing.

All defendants deny the accusations: lawyers argue that MELANIA “is not a scam,” that no one ever promised value increases, that the software was decentralized, and therefore the managers could not control what users did.

Meanwhile, the total volume of meme coins has fallen 92% from January to November 2025. Investors, “squeezed” multiple times by the subsequent mania, have stopped participating. Davis has become a pariah in the crypto sector, disappeared from social media, although blockchain shows he continues trading.

The legacy: conflicts of interest and new fronts

Meanwhile, the Trump family has continued diversifying its interests in the crypto sector, denying that personal interests influence political decisions. Trump promoted a plan to have the government’s strategic reserves buy Bitcoin; son Eric owns a mining company; the children consult for predictive betting platforms that the government has decided to tolerate, unlike the previous administration.

In June 2025, “Fight Fight Fight LLC” announced a new trading app, although Trump’s children immediately publicly disavowed it.

Conclusion: when technology meets the absence of regulations

What emerges from the story of the Trump tokens is not so much an exceptional fraud, but the normalization of fraud in a sector without rules. Ng of Meteora used a revealing metaphor: the meme coin market is like a tank full of “dog poop, baby poop, and even E. coli bacteria,” but he claims that “maybe there’s really a baby inside.”

The reality is more unpleasant: when rules are written by sector hype men and the government loosens financial regulation, the market becomes a machine to extract value from small savers and transfer it to those with privileged information and platform access.

The lack of responsibility of the Trump family is not accidental: it is the logical result of a system designed to operate in regulatory vacuum. As long as no one has to account for it, others will follow the same scheme.