The circus of presidential coins: how meme coins became the biggest scam of 2025

When Politics Encountered Unregulated Finance

In early January 2025, as the Trump family prepared to return to the White House, an unprecedented event occurred in the cryptocurrency market: two digital tokens directly related to American political leaders exploded and collapsed, leaving hundreds of thousands of investors with devastating losses.

The numbers speak for themselves. The TRUMP token reached a peak of $74 before crashing to near zero levels. Its counterpart, MELANIA, had a similar trajectory: reaching $13 and then losing 99% of its value. The most concerning part was not the collapse itself but what subsequent analyses revealed: individuals identified as close to the family may have extracted over $350 million in profits while thousands of small investors lost everything.

The Invisible Role of Intermediaries: From Zanker to Shadow Operators

Although Donald Trump insisted in his inauguration press conference that “he knew nothing” about the tokens bearing his name, Delaware records tell a different story. One name appeared repeatedly: Bill Zanker, an elderly entrepreneur with a questionable history of financial initiatives. Decades ago, Zanker promoted dubious seminars on real estate wealth; in 2022, he launched Trump digital collectible cards that generated millions in quick income for the former president.

But Zanker was not the true architect of this operation. Later investigations uncovered a more complex network: operators specialized in token launches working behind the scenes, coordinating price movements and channeling profits into specific accounts.

Among these operators was Hayden Davis, a crypto consultant with a background that included ties to evangelical organizations and multi-level marketing companies. Davis, along with his father Tom, formed what would be known as Kelsier Ventures—a sort of investment bank for meme coins working directly with token issuers.

The Argentine Connection: The Pattern That Was Exposed

The real revelation came when another similar scandal erupted in Argentina. President Javier Milei publicly endorsed a token called LIBRA that collapsed almost instantly. Blockchain analysis—this public and immutable ledger—showed something crucial: the same operator behind LIBRA had also participated in the creation of MELANIA.

Crypto investigator Nicolas Vaiman, who tracks illicit transactions, documented suspicious buying patterns: someone had purchased $1.1 million worth of TRUMP in seconds with clear insider information, sold within three days, and made $100 million. On Wall Street, this would be called insider trading. In the unregulated crypto world, it simply went unpunished.

The Facilitating Exchange: How a Platform Became an Accomplice

Investigations increasingly pointed to a specific trading platform: a certain crypto exchange that apparently facilitated the launches of the presidential tokens. The co-founder of this platform, known only by his alias “Meow”—whose avatar is a cat wearing an astronaut helmet—had built an impressive network within the crypto ecosystem.

His true identity was Ming Yeow Ng, a Singaporean entrepreneur who had previously founded successful crypto applications. What was fascinating was that Meow publicly articulated a disturbing philosophy: justifying meme coins as “financial freedom” tools and comparing creating new coins to “founding a religion”—requiring only a symbol, a community, and a narrative.

When directly asked about his role in the Trump tokens, Meow evaded questions, claiming his platform only provided “technical support” without interfering in operations. However, data showed that the weekend of TRUMP’s launch was the second-highest volume in the history of his exchange.

The Collapse of Omertà: When Insiders Start Talking

Moty Povolotski, co-founder of a crypto startup, became the first to publicly reveal how this machinery operated from within. He had worked with Davis on meme coin operations and witnessed conversations exposing the true intent: “Sell everything possible, even if the price drops to zero,” Davis had written in internal messages.

Povolotski recounted how Davis coordinated with other ecosystem actors, including exchange executives, to execute what the industry calls “sniping”—using insider information to buy massively at launch and sell when other investors join, capturing all profits as the price collapses afterward.

The Extraction Machine: Numbers That Reveal the Truth

While political leaders denied responsibility and operators remained silent, numbers began painting a different picture. Blockchain analysis suggests Davis and his associates could have earned over $150 million in meme coin operations. Half of those profits came from Libra.

The exchange executive who coordinated much of this—Ben Chow—eventually resigned after being confronted with evidence of his involvement. But that only tore the curtain: by then, the damage was already done.

The Regulatory Context: When Apathy Becomes Complicity

The fundamental reason all this was possible: the near-total lack of regulation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission simply announced it would “not regulate” meme coins, issuing only general warnings about fraud that no one enforced.

A New York lawyer named Max Burwick began filing lawsuits characterizing meme coins as “insider-manipulated casinos” and accusing key operators of repeatedly orchestrating “pump and dump” schemes. But cases move slowly, and so far, no one in the political circle has been formally charged.

The Legacy: A Transformed Industry and the Uncomfortable Question

By December 2025, TRUMP had plummeted 92% from its peak—barely trading at $5.9—while MELANIA was virtually worthless. Meme coins as a category had seen trading volume drop 92% from their January peak.

However, the winners had already disappeared with their gains. Davis became a pariah within the crypto sector, his networks went inactive, but blockchain shows he continues launching new tokens. Meow and his exchange launched their own cryptocurrency with a market cap of $300 million.

What remains is an unanswered question: how did a developed country allow its political leaders to enrich themselves through financial mechanisms specifically designed to scam unwary citizens? In traditional markets, regulators would investigate, records would be reviewed, and manipulation evidence would be sought. In the unregulated meme coin world, such oversight seems an alien concept.

The crypto industry had built something truly unique: a value extraction machine capable of turning pure speculation into hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth transfers—always in the same direction, always away from small investors dreaming of quick, effortless gains.