Melania Trump’s meme coin architects accused of pump-and-dump fraud in lawsuit

First lady not named in suit in which investors allege Meteora executives created coin they knew would plummet

The designers of a cryptocurrency launched by the US first lady, Melania Trump, in January were accused in court filings on Tuesday of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme.

The $MELANIA coins were released for just a few cents each on 19 January, the day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president. In addition to $MELANIA, Donald Trump launched $TRUMP a few hours before his inauguration.

Within hours, the $MELANIA coin’s price soared to $13.73.