Meteora Debuts Token with Controversial Airdrops to Melania and President Trump Meme Coin Wallets
On Thursday, Meteora officially launched its token, MET, distributing it through an airdrop to various users. The project emphasized its efforts to blacklist “malicious bad actors” from receiving tokens. However, the airdrop raised eyebrows within the crypto community when two wallets linked to the controversial Melania Trump meme coin received $1.2 million worth of MET tokens.
According to SolScan data, the wallets named melania-liquidity1.sol and melania-liquidity2.sol were credited with $784,200 and $454,724 of MET, respectively, totaling approximately $1.23 million. Both wallets are identified as part of the Official Melania Meme entity on the blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence. Shortly after receiving the tokens, these wallets transferred the funds to various other addresses, sparking concern among observers.
In addition, three wallets connected to the President Trump meme coin were airdropped MET tokens totaling $4.2 million. These wallets were among the top five recipients of the airdrop and subsequently deposited their tokens to the exchange OKX, making it difficult to track their on-chain activity.
The episode drew criticism on social media. A user on X questioned, “Why is Hayden Davis getting a MET airdrop? You have to be kidding me,” referring to the CEO of Kelsier Ventures, the company that helped launch MELANIA. Meteora co-lead, Soju, responded by pointing out that the LIBRA launch wallets were excluded from receiving tokens, just an hour before the MELANIA-linked wallets received MET.
The timing of these controversial airdrops comes shortly after Meteora co-founder Benjamin Chow was named in a class action lawsuit filed by investors who allege he masterminded a “scam coin” operation involving at least 15 tokens. These tokens included well-known meme coins such as MELANIA, LIBRA, and ENRON, all of which experienced significant crashes soon after launch.
Court filings state that the operation, conducted under the Meteora name, was separate from the company’s legitimate automated market maker business. Benjamin Chow has since stepped down from his leadership role at Meteora. The company’s co-founder, Meow, cited “a lack of judgment and care” as reasons for his resignation.
The MELANIA token itself gained rapid attention after its launch. Just two days after President Trump introduced his meme coin in January 2024, former First Lady Melania Trump promoted a Solana-based meme coin using her name as its ticker. The token surged to nearly a $7 billion market cap before crashing by 99% to approximately $80 million in the following months.
Further scrutiny emerged after Argentinian President Javier Milei promoted a similar failed meme coin in February. On-chain analytics firm Bubblemaps linked this token back to MELANIA, which led to a fraud and racketeering class action lawsuit against the involved parties.
Meteora has worked with on-chain forensic teams, including sleuth Dethective and anti-scam tool Rugcheck, to prevent tokens from reaching malicious actors. Despite these efforts, it appears the Melania-linked wallets slipped through the cracks. None of the mentioned parties—Soju, Meteora, Dethective, or Rugcheck—immediately responded to requests for comment from Decrypt.
Despite the controversy, many airdrop recipients praised the MET token launch, noting a smooth claim process and sizable token allocations. Currently, MET ranks as the 269th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, valued at $263.2 million, according to CoinGecko.
However, criticisms have grown regarding the airdrops sent to wallets tied to the President Trump meme coin team. Although this meme coin has not yet been subject to fraud lawsuits, it has become embroiled in political debates, including allegations of conflicts of interest and potential foreign influence.
As Meteora moves forward with its token launch, the community and investors remain watchful of further developments, particularly concerning the project’s past leadership and connections to controversial meme coin endeavors.
https://decrypt.co/345768/wallets-melania-trump-meme-coin-airdropped-1-2-million-meteora-tokens
