## Lessons from the Presidential Token Fever: When "Meme Heart" Turns into a Money-Making Machine

In late January 2025, a shocking event rocked the global cryptocurrency market: the Trump family launched two Meme coins named "TRUMP" and "MELANIA." Within just a few hours, their combined value exceeded $5 billion. But then, retail investors panicked as these tokens plummeted, losing 90% of their value. According to blockchain analysts, the Trump team and related partners could have earned over $350 million from this brief craze.

The story is not just about the numbers. It reveals the entire Meme coin ecosystem—a completely unregulated market where developers who dedicate themselves to building a "meme community" end up becoming sophisticated price manipulators. And when the US President jumps into this game, it exposes a troubling truth: modern financial systems can be "solved" with an indirect symbol and a phone.

## Meme coin: From Joke to "Private Profit Tool"

To understand the incident, we need to go back to the origins of Meme coins. In 2013, two software engineers created "Dogecoin"—initially just a satirical take on the crypto craze, using the "Shiba Inu" meme as its icon. But investors flocked in, and within weeks, Dogecoin reached a market cap of $12 million. One founder worried: "I really hope people don't turn every famous meme into a token."

But that fear became reality. Over the decades, each time the crypto market falters, this coin type flares up again. In 2021, when Elon Musk praised Dogecoin, hundreds of other Meme coins sprouted like mushrooms after rain: Dogwifhat, Bonk, Fartcoin... Their success almost completely disregards basic financial principles. According to traditional valuation standards, Meme coins are entirely worthless—no real product, no cash flow, only the "shared trust" of the community. The only way to profit is to sell to someone else at a higher price, i.e., "speculating on speculation itself."

"According to the efficient market hypothesis, this shouldn't happen, but in reality, it can make money," admitted Alon Cohen, co-founder of the well-known Pump.fun platform. This platform has supported the issuance of about 1,400 Meme coins, and just the transaction fees from January 2024 to now have earned about $1 billion.

## Chain of benefits: From Bill Zanker to Hayden Davis

To decode the mystery behind the Trump token, we need to start with an unusual character: Bill Zanker—a 71-year-old entrepreneur who co-authored a book with Trump in 2007. For decades, Zanker promoted psychic call services, boxing gyms, spa chains, and was most famous for the Learning Annex seminar company teaching courses like "How to Cheat on Your Spouse." In the 2000s, his "Real Estate Wealth Expo" seminars always sold out, with Trump as a guest star.

When Trump left the White House in 2021 amid lawsuits, Zanker introduced a new way to make money. In 2022, they issued NFTs called "digital trading cards priced at $99" featuring a cartoon version of Trump with bulging muscles. This licensing revenue alone earned Trump at least $7 million.

By 2025, the Zanker-Trump collaboration continued: Meme coins. But the biggest obstacle was that this move seemed politically controversial. According to a crypto investor at Mar-a-Lago at that time, the Trump team wanted to issue the tokens before the inauguration because "after that, Trump would be under tighter scrutiny." The only clue was the company name on the website—"Fight Fight Fight LLC," clearly inspired by Trump's remark after the July 2024 assassination attempt.

But who actually issued these Meme coins? When Bloomberg Businessweek investigated, a name emerged in the Delaware company records: Hayden Davis—a crypto advisor to Argentine President Javier Milei, who dropped out of a Christian school and claims to be a "startup expert" on LinkedIn.

## Bloodstains: The Argentine President Javier Milei's Meme coin event

The story became clearer when a similar scandal occurred in Argentina. On February 14, Argentine President Javier Milei launched the Meme coin "Libra," and just hours later, the token's price plummeted sharply. Milei quickly deleted the social media post. This event drew attention from blockchain experts because blockchain—the public ledger—leaves traces that can be traced back to all transactions.

Nicolas Vaiman, co-founder of the analysis platform Bubblemaps, who describes himself as a "crypto detective," detected anomalies in the MILEI and TRUMP transactions. Blockchain data is anonymous, but through analysis of "which address bought what, when, and the flow of funds," Vaiman uncovered suspicious links: someone bought $1.1 million worth of TRUMP in seconds, "knowing in advance," and then sold it within three days, earning $100 million. Another address bought MELANIA before it was publicly launched, earning $2.4 million. Vaiman found that this address was owned by or linked to the "MELANIA creation address."

"On Wall Street, this is called insider trading, but no enforcement agency wants to apply this rule to Meme coins," Vaiman commented. "Essentially, in the crypto space, crime is legal."

More interestingly, Vaiman discovered that the "MILEI creation wallet" and the "MELANIA creation wallet" are connected in a network. The person behind MILEI is Hayden Davis—the same crypto advisor to Milei, who dropped out of "Liberty University."

## Witness: Moty Povolotski and the emergence of Meow

After the MILEI collapse, Moty Povolotski, co-founder of the DeFiTuna crypto startup, publicly stated that his company had collaborated with Davis to issue Meme coins and possessed "evidence of a larger conspiracy," involving a crypto exchange director. According to Povolotski, Davis transferred about 10 million MELANIA tokens to his co-founder, demanding "sell when market cap reaches $100 million," and instructed "to sell anonymously."

Povolotski also revealed that the actual operator was a director of the Meteora exchange—a larger platform than Pump.fun, where TRUMP, MELANIA, and LIBRA were first issued. The Meteora co-founder uses the avatar "space cat"—Meow—as the platform's operator, although without an official title.

## Revealing Meow's identity: Singaporean entrepreneur Ng Ming Yeow

After investigation, Bloomberg Businessweek identified Meow as Ng Ming Yeow, a Singaporean in his 40s. Ng Ming Yeow previously developed the crypto app "Mercurial Finance," which was invested in by Sam Bankman-Fried's fund. After Bankman-Fried's fraud was exposed, Ng Ming Yeow changed his name to "Meteora."

The Meteora platform allows issuing and trading various cryptocurrencies. According to Blockworks, 90% of the platform's total revenue of $134 million last year came from Meme coin transactions—these often charge higher fees.

When asked about his role in issuing the Trump token, Ng Ming Yeow said Meteora only "provides technical support," and does not participate in trading or do anything illegal. However, data shows that the weekend of Trump's token launch was the second-largest trading volume weekend in Meteora's history.

Ng Ming Yeow defended that building a decentralized platform aims to allow "anyone to issue any token," not to "control the intentions of the issuer." He used the metaphor of "a baby in a bathtub": even if there are dog feces, baby feces, and even E. coli bacteria in the tub, the "baby" still exists there.

## Manifestations of the craze: Prices soaring then crashing

The weekend of TRUMP's launch was the busiest in Meme coin trading history: prices skyrocketed from nearly zero to $74; two days later, MELANIA was launched, reaching $13. But the next day, both tokens collapsed without recovery.

By December 10, TRUMP had fallen 92% from its peak, down to $5.9; MELANIA dropped 99%, to just $0.11—almost worthless. According to Blockworks, by November, the total Meme coin trading volume had decreased by 92% from the January peak.

## Who makes money: The chain of hidden benefits

Clearly, when issuing tokens, the Trump couple had someone wanting to "make quick money." But as prices fell, fewer celebrities stepped forward to attract investors. Meme coins gradually lost their appeal.

"This is the 'ultimate value-draining machine' designed by a highly talented group,"—lawyer Max Burwick commented. He represented the losing investors in the Pump.fun lawsuit, calling it "a rigged casino by insiders"; in another lawsuit, he sued Davis, Ben Chow, and Meteora, accusing the platform of multiple pump-and-dump scams.

All defendants deny the allegations. Davis's lawyer said MILEI "is not a scam," and they never promised the token would increase in value. Ben Chow's lawyer said Ben "only participated in developing Meteora's software."

## Expansion: From Meme coins to "diverse conflict of interest"

Trump and his family shifted to a "diverse conflict of interest portfolio," though they still deny "personal financial influence on policy": the President previously promoted a plan for the "US government to buy strategic Bitcoin reserves"; son Eric owns a Bitcoin mining company; the government has advanced a deal to "sell fighter jets to Saudi Arabia," and the Trump family licensed the "Trump" brand for a seaside tower in Jeddah; Trump also pardoned billionaire Zhao Changpeng, co-founder of a major exchange, which had previously supported Trump's other crypto projects.

Many KOLs who promoted Meme coins have also moved to other fields—some starting to promote "prediction markets." Under Biden, regulators considered this "illegal gambling," but the Trump administration relaxed regulations, and the Trump family also took advantage of the opportunity to participate.

## Conclusion: A city without laws

Perhaps Ng Ming Yeow is right when he says the crypto world is a "microcosm of the real world"—where everyone wants to make money immediately, and prefers to sit back and relax. When the US President jumps into this Meme coin game, it’s not just about issuing tokens. It exposes the entire ecosystem: from dedicated developers building a "meme community" to sophisticated price manipulators, from "technical support" exchanges to mysterious figures behind the scenes. It’s a lawless city where anyone who knows how to make money can do so, and those who are late will lose.

As long as regulators remain silent and developers stay anonymous, this craze will continue with new tokens, new characters, but the same mechanisms: promises, exploitation, silence.