Trump's Meme-Coin Empire: How a Family Earned Hundreds of Millions with Digital Hype

The Staging: A Crypto Ball and Two Digital Tokens

In early January 2025, just before Trump’s inauguration: A glamorous event at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington. High-profile guests – from politicians to crypto influencers – gathered for the so-called “Crypto Ball.” The atmosphere was tense. Then came the announcement: Donald Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social his own digital token – “TRUMP.” The price exploded.

Just a few days later, wife Melania followed with her token “MELANIA.” The scene looked surreal: like two sparkling slot machines with Trump logos, suddenly set up on the National Mall.

The phenomenon was remarkable – and alarming. Within hours, the total value of the Trump family and their business partners’ token holdings soared to about $5 billion. But then came the crash. Prices plummeted. Hundreds of thousands of small investors lost all their savings. Analyses by specialized crypto data companies suggest the Trump team could have realized legitimate gains of over $350 million.

The Trump administration then publicly assured: “Everything was compliant with regulations.” But this assurance sounded hollow in light of the facts uncovered by Bloomberg reporters.

Meme Coins: The Unregulated Casino of Modern Times

To understand this story properly, one must start with the roots of meme coins. These unregulated digital tokens are based purely on hype – not on fundamental business models, products, or cash flows. They originally emerged as jokes. In 2013, two software developers took the famous “Shiba Inu Side-Eye” meme – then a running gag in online communities – and turned it into a cryptocurrency called Dogecoin. The experiment was meant to mock the flood of crypto projects following Bitcoin.

But the opposite happened: investors flocked in droves. Dogecoin reached a market capitalization of $12 million within weeks.

Since then, such tokens have multiplied exponentially. Especially in 2021, after Elon Musk’s public support for Dogecoin, the new coin launches accelerated dramatically. Tokens like Dogwifhat, Bonk, Fartcoin, and thousands more appeared – all without real economic purpose.

For traditional financial markets, this is paradoxical. Even the biggest speculative bubbles on the stock exchange are at least based on optimistic expectations about companies or industries. Meme coins, on the other hand, have no product, no cash flow, no measurable metrics. By classical valuation standards, they would be worthless.

The only way for buyers to profit is to find others willing to buy the same token at a higher price. So, they are speculating on speculation itself – a system that should be physically impossible, but in reality, it works.

The Platforms: Technology of Chaos

The most popular platform for creating and trading meme coins currently is a decentralized app where about 1,400 new tokens are created each month. The founding team of this platform – led by the just 22-year-old Alon Cohen – has enriched itself blindly. The fee income alone amounted to around one billion dollars since January 2024.

Cohen explains in interviews how it works: The user interface is deliberately simple – retro-looking, full of blinking pixel icons, each representing a token. Creating a new digital token takes only a few clicks. No programming needed, no regulatory approval, not even deeper technical knowledge required.

Any trending topic or current news can become a token – even tragedies have been turned into speculation objects. The starting price is typically fractions of a cent and automatically rises with demand according to a fixed formula.

The average users are young men from online communities. They discuss new token opportunities on social media and specialized channels. Once a token gains enough attention, it is listed on established major platforms – which in turn attracts more traders and drives the price.

Whoever buys the right token at the right time can multiply their stake ten- or twentyfold within hours. It’s a system full of appeal for gamblers.

The Dark Mechanics: Insiders, Pump-and-Dump, and Structured Fraud

But beneath the surface, there is turmoil. Token creators have significant economic incentives to cheat. The classic pattern: they initially promise to “sell a fixed amount of tokens at low prices.” But once the price rises, they have every reason to “sell as much as possible” – ideally without others noticing.

Established (and also illegal) techniques include:

• Fake trades to simulate activity
• Hidden payments to influencers to generate “organically” appearing hype
• Anonymous sales through shell wallets
• The so-called “Sniping”: insiders buy large amounts immediately at token launch with privileged access and sell when the mass market jumps in

The central reality is simple: the only consistent winners are insiders who get in early. For the average investor, it’s a rigged game.

Crypto transactions are stored on the public blockchain – theoretically traceable. Blockchain analysts have identified suspicious patterns in TRUMP and MELANIA. Someone bought TRUMP worth $1.1 million apparently with insider knowledge within seconds and sold with a $100 million profit three days later. Another bought MELANIA before the public announcement and earned $2.4 million – wallet analysis showed that this address is identical to the “creator wallet of MELANIA.”

On Wall Street, this would be called insider trading. But with meme coins, no one cares.

The Puppeteers: From a Dropout to the Mysterious Meow

The key question remains: How did Trump technically release these tokens? Certainly not alone. The Trump team must have had partners – experts who understand the system.

Bloomberg investigations revealed a network of key figures:

Hayden Davis: A 29-year-old dropout from Liberty University (an evangelical college in Virginia). Davis presents himself on LinkedIn as an “entrepreneur” and is actually a crypto advisor. His father Tom was in prison for check fraud; both previously promoted multi-level marketing schemes.

Davis founded Kelsier Ventures – a kind of investment bank for token issuances. His business model: token consulting, influencer contacts, trading support. According to analyst estimates, Davis earned over $150 million with meme coins.

Particularly relevant: Davis was also a crypto advisor for Argentina’s President Javier Milei and helped with the issuance of “Libra Coin” – which also crashed quickly. After the scandal, Davis admitted to being involved with MELANIA but claimed to have “earned no money.” In interviews, he later acknowledged: “Meme coins are an unregulated casino” and warned others about the market.

Ming Yeow Ng (Codename: Meow): The most mysterious cog in the machinery. Ng is a Singaporean over 40, hiding behind a cartoon avatar of a cat with an astronaut helmet. He is co-founder of Meteora, a crypto trading platform larger and more tailored than other meme coin platforms.

TRUMP, MELANIA, and LIBRA were first listed on Meteora – which is unlikely to be a coincidence. According to Blockworks, 90 percent of Meteora’s $134 million revenue last year came from meme coin trading.

Ng philosophizes that “all financial assets are basically meme coins” – because their value is based on “shared belief.” The dollar? Also a meme coin by this logic. Ng claims Meteora only provides “technical support” without direct involvement. That’s hard to believe when looking at the numbers.

Bill Zanker: A 71-year-old entrepreneur who has known Trump for years – they co-wrote a business book in 2007. Zanker has a long history of dubious ventures: fortune-teller hotlines, boxing studios, massage chains. In 2013, Zanker and Trump jointly promoted a failed crowdfunding website.

After Trump’s political decline, Zanker helped him find new revenue sources: in 2022, they released $99 NFT trading cards – which alone brought Trump several million dollars. Zanker is registered as an “authorized person” in Delaware documents for “Fight Fight Fight LLC” – the company behind TRUMP.

The Argentine Precedent and Network Revelation

One month after Trump’s token launch, Argentina’s President Javier Milei also became embroiled in a meme coin scandal. He had supported a token called “Libra Coin” on February 14 – which crashed shortly after. Milei quickly withdrew his support.

Blockchain data showed links between Milei’s token and Trump’s token – both connected to Hayden Davis. Crypto detectives traced transaction chains and uncovered a structured fraud network. A former partner of Davis, named Moty Povolotski, went public as a whistleblower.

Povolotski reported that Davis had a clear goal: “Make as much money as possible for himself.” In group chats, Davis wrote: “Sell as much as possible, even if the price drops to zero. Honestly, guys, we just want to squeeze this token.”

Povolotski also revealed the role of Ben Chow, then CEO of Meteora. In a recorded video call, Chow admitted to “making contacts” and “referring Davis to the Melania team.”

The Regulatory Gap: A Lawless Space

This is the biggest problem: there is practically no regulation. One month after Trump’s inauguration, the US SEC announced it would “take no regulatory action” and only pointed out that “other fraud laws could still apply.” Concrete measures? None.

Some lawyers have begun filing lawsuits against the platforms and operators – accusing them of fraud, market manipulation, pump-and-dump schemes. Trump and Milei have not been charged so far. All defendants deny the allegations.

On Wall Street, regulators would have to scrutinize suspicious profits and request personal data. In the meme coin sector, such oversight currently does not exist.

Conflicts of Interest in a Gray Area

A “dinner of top investors” revealed the political dimensions: the 220 largest TRUMP token buyers were invited to an evening at Trump National Golf Club in Northern Virginia in May 2025. The biggest investor was Justin Sun, a crypto billionaire born in China, who bought TRUMP worth $15 million.

A few months earlier, a US lawsuit against Sun for fraud had been dismissed – fueling speculation about “quiet deals.”

The Trump administration defended the dinner as harmless: the president participated in his “free time.” An absurd view, considering that a government cannot have “after-hours conflicts of interest.”

Meanwhile, the Trump family shifted to a “diversified conflict of interest portfolio”: the president proposed that the US government buy Bitcoin as a strategic reserve. His son Eric owns a Bitcoin mining company. The government has advanced arms sales to Saudi Arabia, while the Trump family licensed the “Trump” brand for a skyscraper in Jeddah. Trump pardoned crypto billionaire Changpeng Zhao – and suddenly his company supported another Trump crypto project.

The Collapse and New Schemes

The meme coin hype has now subsided. According to Blockworks, trading volume fell by 92 percent from the January high by November. Investors were repeatedly “ripped off” until the money ran out.

TRUMP dropped to $5.9 – a 92 percent decline from the peak. MELANIA fell 99 percent to $0.11 – practically worthless.

Davis has become the “outcast” of the crypto industry – remarkable in a sector that despises rules. His social media channels are silent. Blockchain data, however, shows his wallets continue to trade meme coins.

Ming Yeow Ng, on the other hand: Meteora launched its own token in October with a current market capitalization of over $300 million. As long as promoters and Trump remain silent, it remains unclear how they earned so much in such a short time.

The Next Wave: From Meme Coins to Prediction Markets

Many former meme coin influencers have already shifted their strategy. They now promote “Prediction Markets” – speculative betting markets on sports events, elections, and practically everything. Under Biden, these were considered “illegal gambling.” Under Trump, they are allowed with liberal regulations. The Trump family has already entered.

The dynamics are identical to meme coins: new markets emerge, insiders profit, while small investors lose. It’s the same system, just with a different label.

Conclusion: The “Ultimate Value Extraction Machine”

A New York lawyer representing harmed investors calls it an “ultimate value extraction machine, designed by extremely capable people.” The industry works as follows: Offer everyone the chance at the “next big hit,” profit from the hype that automatically triggers network effects, and then cash out – before the price drops to zero.

The Trump family only needed a name, a network, technical expertise, and a lawless space. The Trump couple provided the name. Zanker provided the infrastructure. Davis handled hype management. Ng and Meteora provided the technical platform. Together, they created a perfect machine for value extraction.

What is shocking is not that meme coins exist. What is shocking is that a sitting government exploits this gap – without hesitation, without consequences.

As long as there is no regulation, this pattern will repeat. Other celebrities will follow. Other politicians will follow. And millions of small investors will continue to be “ripped off” until the money runs out.

And yes, Ming Yeow Ng might be right: the world wants to make quick money without working. Meme coins are just a mirror of that reality.