The MELANIA token community is concerned about a soft rug pull after the blockchain tracking platform Arkham Intelligence reported that the team behind this meme coin transferred 1 million dollars worth of MELANIA tokens from the Meteora liquidity pool to a new wallet.
Although this may seem like a routine transaction, historical behavior suggests otherwise.
On several occasions, the team has taken similar liquidity withdrawal actions in recent weeks.
This latest activity comes after a series of suspicious transactions detected by Lookonchain in recent days, indicating that the MELANIA team sold over 1.5 million dollars worth of tokens within 72 hours.
On April 28 alone, 938,000 dollars worth of MELANIA was sold, two days after a sell-off of 632,000 dollars.
According to blockchain data from Solscan, sales are distributed across multiple wallets, indicating a deliberate fragmentation to conceal the true level of selling pressure.
Although the price of MELANIA has increased by 21% in the past week, this token's price is still 96% lower than its all-time high of 13.70 dollars achieved on January 20.
Liquidation Calculations and Historical Models: A Deeper Insight
The sales tactics of the MELANIA team are becoming increasingly calculated.
According to Lookonchain, the team has adopted a DCA strategy, in typical investment scenarios, helping to mitigate emotion-based decision-making by purchasing or selling assets in small batches over time.
However, in this case, this strategy is used to sell off a massive holding of tokens without causing a catastrophic price drop that would alert the community too early.
This approach ensures continuous downward pressure while still concealing the full extent of the impact.
This is not the first time this has happened. Back on April 20, blockchain researcher EmberCN reported that the MELANIA team sold over 14.75 million dollars worth of tokens in the previous month through centralized exchanges and manipulated liquidity pools on decentralized platforms.
On April 19 alone, they sold 2.95 million tokens worth approximately 1.2 million dollars in SOL. Despite community speculation and ongoing warnings, these actions continue without consequence.
MELANIA, a coin that once had a market capitalization of 13 billion dollars, has now lost 99% of its value, similar to the dismal collapse of LIBRA.
The Momentum of Meme Coins Fades as Political Coins Lose Their Appeal
Although meme coins accounted for up to 27% of cryptocurrency investors' interest in Q1 2025, second only to AI tokens, recent performance trends indicate that enthusiasm is waning.
TRUMP, another meme token with a political theme, has plummeted from a high of 75.35 dollars to just 8.14 dollars in three months, despite renewed interest related to a 300 million dollar token unlock and a promotional gala featuring President Trump himself.
Diminishing excitement is evident throughout the ecosystem, as meme coins are currently struggling; investors are shifting towards stories with more substantive content, such as AI and the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA).
These concerns extend beyond the realm of cryptocurrency. Legal pressure is mounting against such dubious behavior.
In an unrelated but parallel incident, Nike is facing a class-action lawsuit from RTFKT investors, who allege that the sports giant executed a soft rug pull by abruptly shutting down the NFT platform in December 2024.
The plaintiff alleges that Nike failed to disclose legal risks and abandoned the project after hyping it up, an action similar to that of MELANIA and LIBRA.
With major brands like Nike and projects like MELANIA facing criticism, the super cycle of meme coins is waning, potentially paving the way for a new, more tightly regulated and cautious phase in this space.
For MELANIA holders, the outlook remains bleak. The token's price is nearing a bottom, and with each new liquidity removal or group wallet transaction, confidence in the project diminishes. New investors should limit their investments and seek more suitable investment products.