In a swirl of cryptocurrency hype, celebrity endorsements, and dramatic market crashes, the Melania Trump-themed meme coin—known as $MELANIA—has become the center of one of the most high-profile fraud lawsuits of 2025. The controversy, which has drawn in not just the former First Lady but also Argentine President Javier Milei, has gripped both the crypto world and mainstream investors, raising questions about the risks of digital tokens and the power of celebrity influence.
According to Forbes, the trouble began in January 2025, when $MELANIA launched on the Solana blockchain, just as Donald Trump was inaugurated for his latest term. The token was billed as the “official” Melania Trump memecoin, and its debut was nothing short of explosive: it soared to a market capitalization of over $2 billion, with the price shooting above $13 on secondary markets. For a brief moment, it seemed like a golden ticket for those who bought in early.
But the euphoria didn’t last. As Decrypt and Common Dreams reported, $MELANIA’s value plummeted—first losing more than half its value within days, then sliding a staggering 99.3% from its all-time highs over the following months. By October 10, 2025, the token was trading at just $0.09202, with a market cap hovering around $85 million. Investors who had poured their savings into the coin were left devastated, many watching their investments evaporate almost overnight.
The story of $MELANIA, however, wasn’t just about a failed crypto gamble. On October 22, 2025, a class action lawsuit was filed in New York—Hurlock v. Kelsier Ventures—alleging that the coin’s collapse was no accident. Plaintiffs accused executives at Meteora, the decentralized exchange where $MELANIA first traded, of orchestrating a sophisticated “pump-and-dump” scheme designed to enrich a handful of insiders at the expense of the broader investing public. The complaint named Benjamin Chow, Meteora’s founder, as the mastermind, with the Davis family (acting through Kelsier Ventures) and other collaborators allegedly executing the fraud.
“Defendants borrowed credibility from real-world figures or themes—such as the ‘official Melania Trump’ coin (MELANIA), [and] the ‘Argentine revival’ coin (LIBRA) tied to President Javier Milei,” the lawsuit reads, as cited by Decrypt. “These faces and brands were used as props to legitimize what was actually a coordinated liquidity trap. Plaintiffs do not allege those public figures were culpable; they were merely the window dressing for a crime engineered by Meteora and Kelsier.”
Indeed, both Melania Trump and Javier Milei promoted their respective coins—MELANIA and LIBRA—on social media, lending a veneer of legitimacy that drew in mainstream consumers, not just seasoned crypto traders. But as the Forbes report notes, the lawsuit is clear: “The first lady was unaware of the alleged fraud, plaintiffs claim, arguing if her team had ‘been aware that the project was part of a coordinated criminal scheme, they would have rescinded any consent immediately.’”
So how did the alleged scheme work? According to court documents and reporting from Decrypt and Forbes, the defendants—Chow and his collaborators—repeatedly followed a “playbook” for launching new meme coins. They would use their privileged access within the Solana blockchain to buy up large amounts of a new token at low prices, then use paid influencers and celebrity endorsements to generate buzz and drive up demand. As the price soared, the insiders would quietly sell their holdings for massive profits, leaving latecomers holding the bag as the value inevitably collapsed.
“$MELANIA was not a legitimate or endorsed token, but a fraud that misused intellectual property and public trust to create the illusion of integrity while executing a Theft,” the lawsuit alleges, according to Forbes. “Investors believed they were supporting a celebrity-endorsed innovation. In truth, they were providing liquidity to an insider-controlled market rigged for collapse.”
The LIBRA coin, promoted by Argentine President Milei, followed a similar trajectory. It was branded as a tool to fund small Argentine businesses, spiked in value, then crashed by 90% within hours—after which Milei quickly deleted his promotional posts. Both coins, as on-chain analytics from Bubblemaps revealed, were linked by wallets used in their launches, tying the schemes together and prompting the class action lawsuit.
As details emerged, Benjamin Chow resigned from Meteora in February 2025. Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Ventures, found himself at the center of the debacle after a series of interviews following LIBRA’s collapse. Plaintiffs allege Davis executed “at least 15 token launches at Chow’s direction,” all following the same fraudulent blueprint.
The scale of the alleged fraud has been immense. While $MELANIA’s value nosedived, the lawsuit claims the defendants used the Melania Trump brand to “expand the victim pool beyond crypto traders to mainstream consumers who associated the Melania Trump brand with credibility and sophistication.” As Forbes notes, the plaintiffs are seeking a range of remedies: requiring the defendants to turn over all profits from the scheme, barring them from launching similar projects in the future, and appointing an independent receiver to take control of Meteora.
The impact has not been limited to the tokens themselves. Dow Jones reported that on October 22, 2025, major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP also dropped amid the fraud accusations, illustrating how quickly confidence can evaporate in the volatile world of crypto.
Notably, the legal process has already seen some twists. In August 2025, a judge ordered $57.6 million in USDC associated with the LIBRA coin to be unfrozen, expressing skepticism that plaintiffs would ultimately prevail. Still, the case remains active, and the outcome is far from certain.
For Melania Trump, the financial fallout is significant but not ruinous. Forbes estimates her net worth at roughly $20 million as of September 2025, with the memecoin representing a sizable portion—though a fraction compared to her husband, whose own crypto ventures have reportedly added billions to his fortune since taking office.
The $MELANIA saga underscores the peril and allure of the meme coin phenomenon—a world where fortunes can be made and lost in hours, and where celebrity or political endorsements can lure even seasoned investors into dangerous territory. As the lawsuit works its way through the courts, the story serves as a cautionary tale for anyone tempted by the next big thing in crypto. Sometimes, not even a famous name can guarantee safety—or integrity—when the stakes are this high.
