In $TRUMP we trust... or do we?

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Two minutes of perfect timing turned pocket money into a fortune.

On 19 January, sixty-four seconds before Melania Trump announced the $MELANIA token, one wallet spent $681,000 buying the coin. Within a day it held $43 million.

It was not alone. Twenty-four addresses grabbed $2.6 million of tokens pre-announcement, reaping a collective $99.6 million. Analysts call such wallets “snipers” – accounts that pounce on liquidity the instant a new coin appears, often tipped off in private chats.

Because memecoins are not securities, insider-dealing rules do not apply. Regulators can see every transfer yet struggle to link wallets to real people.

Crypto’s paradox is stark: radical transparency lets anyone trace profits, yet legal grey zones leave retail buyers exposed.

On-chain visibility is not the same as fairness. Buy after the first minute and you may be funding someone else’s exit. Crypto may be permissionless but its playing field is anything but level.

Source: Financial Times

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