The presidential token craze: when crypto billionaires manipulate the market in front of everyone's eyes

In January 2025, as Washington prepared for inauguration celebrations, a cryptic event captured the attention of the digital financial sector: the launch of the first American pair of digital currencies that would make potential insiders over $350 million in just a few days, only to lose 90% of their value in equally little time.

TRUMP and MELANIA were not simple social media announcements. They were experiments of what the industry calls “meme coin”: digital currencies without intrinsic value, without products, without cash flows. Their only function was to serve as an unregulated casino where early entrants won and latecomers lost everything.

How “funny coins” became a wealth extraction machine

Meme coins are not a recent invention. In 2013, two programmers launched Dogecoin as a parody of the Bitcoin post-cryptocurrency boom, using the famous Shiba Inu meme. Ironically, it was meant as satire, but the market took it seriously: within weeks, its market cap exceeded $12 million.

What happened in the following years transformed the joke into a systematic manipulation methodology. When public figures like musicians and influencers began promoting these tokens, the pattern became clear: those launching the token pocketed fortunes while thousands of small investors ended up with worthless paper in their wallets.

“According to the classical principles of efficient markets, this shouldn’t work,” explains Alon Cohen, co-founder of a platform specialized in these instruments, “yet it generates massive profits.” His platform managed about 1,400 of these tokens in 2024, earning around $1 billion in fees alone.

The mechanism is brutally simple: the price starts from microscopic figures (fractions of a cent), rises exponentially when media attention is attracted, and crashes vertically when initial promoters liquidate their positions. Those buying at the peak lose everything. Those selling early gain astronomical sums.

The invisible infrastructure: platforms, exchanges, and shadow advisors

Behind every major meme coin launch lies a network of people and structures hidden from the public eye. In the case of the presidential tokens, clues begin to emerge through the blockchain— that immutable ledger recording every movement of money, if you know where to look.

A company called “Fight Fight Fight LLC”—a clear reference to the president’s statements after last year’s attack—appeared as the registering entity of TRUMP. The address provided was a PO box in front of a tire shop in West Palm Beach, Florida. But Delaware documents reveal a name: Bill Zanker, 71, an entrepreneur who had previously worked with the Trump family on earlier projects.

Zanker is no stranger to the worlds of unconventional finance. He promoted real estate seminars, crowdfunding platforms, medium hotline lines. In 2022, he suggested a new earning scheme to the president: digital non-fungible tokens. That project netted at least $7 million.

But the real core of the story lies elsewhere. A blockchain analyst specializing in transaction tracking uncovered significant anomalies: one address bought $1.1 million in TRUMP in a few seconds (evidently informed in advance), then sold three days later with a profit of $100 million. Another address bought MELANIA “before it was public,” making $2.4 million.

Tracing this chain of transactions across the decentralized network reveals that these operations were connected. The same infrastructure had orchestrated a previous scandal months earlier when Argentine president Javier Milei—described as a big admirer of the U.S. model—hurriedly launched a token that collapsed within hours, forcing him to delete his endorsement post.

The whistleblower who revealed too much: confessions about the “pump and dump” scheme

A crypto startup consultant, Hayden Davis, until recently operated in the shadows orchestrating these launches. A thirty-something with a turbulent past (his father served time for fake checks), Davis had turned meme coin launches into an industrial methodology.

In a video posted online after the Milei scandal—wearing a Moncler hoodie and aviator sunglasses, not exactly the image of a sophisticated financier—Davis admitted to earning $100 million from Libra (the Argentine token). He described the mechanism as a game without rules, confessing to using “sniping”—a technique where informed traders buy massive amounts of new tokens to resell when the price follows demand.

In intercepted communications, he used brutal and direct language: “Guys, let’s be honest, we just need to squeeze everything out of this token.” To colleagues asking how to handle outgoing transactions, he replied: “Sell as much as possible, even if the price goes to zero.”

When a whistleblower—a former partner who had worked with Davis—decided to expose the schemes, he recounted seeing Davis in Barcelona with his father, showing automated software to “snipe tokens secretly” and launching a new meme coin called ENRON (reference to the famous 2000s energy scandal).

The deregulated ecosystem: decentralized exchanges and Singapore’s role

If Davis was the promoter, another critical figure was the tech executive of a specialized exchange. Known in the industry as “Meow” because of his avatar depicting an astronaut cat, he ran Meteora—a platform where TRUMP, MELANIA, and LIBRA had all been launched.

The true identity of Meow—Ming Yeow Ng, a Singaporean in his forties—emerges through web tracking. Ng founded the technological infrastructure behind these schemes. When Bloomberg interviewed him at a cat café near his Chinatown office, Ng avoided directly answering about his platform’s role in the presidential launches, merely claiming to have provided only “technical support.”

Ng articulated a philosophical view as fascinating as it was dangerous: meme coins are not scams but “pioneers of a new era of digital expression.” He argued that the dollar itself was a meme coin, based purely on “collective faith” like any token launched in 48 hours.

The Meteora exchange had earned $134 million in revenue the previous year, with 90% coming from meme coins. During the weekend of the American pair’s token launch, the transaction volume on the platform set the second-highest record in its history.

Pressed about his role in the MELANIA launch, Ng became evasive. He admitted preliminary contacts for “technical support” but denied involvement in transactions. He claimed his decentralized platform was built to allow “anyone to issue any token” without control over underlying motives.

The Argentine connection: when the same network orchestrated a national scandal

The parallel with Milei’s scandal revealed a consistent infrastructure. The same consultant (Davis) had orchestrated the LIBRA launch in Argentina, whose rapid collapse forced the president to deny any responsibility on TV, saying “it’s like Russian roulette, if you shoot yourself, it’s your fault.”

The blockchain analyst who traced the transactions discovered that the address that created MILEI was connected to the one that created MELANIA. The pattern was identical: launch, artificially generated hype, massive liquidation by insiders, catastrophic collapse.

In a recorded video interview, the whistleblower had a tense conversation with the official who supervised the MELANIA launch. “I often had the impression that you and Davis were partners,” said the accuser. “Davis always said ‘Ben said so,’ ‘Ben wants us to do it this way.’”

The official appeared deeply disturbed but did not deny close ties with Davis. He only admitted to acting as an intermediary when the team needed help. A few months later, he resigned from all positions.

The cost to small investors and the lack of regulation

While insiders pocketed hundreds of millions, hundreds of thousands of small investors faced total losses. As of December 10, 2024, the presidential token had fallen 92% from its peak of $5.9. The First Lady’s token had plummeted 99%, practically worthless at $0.11.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission, one month after the new government took office, officially declared that it “will not regulate” meme coins. The agency limited its comment, stating that “other fraud laws may still apply”—but without any intention of enforcement.

No prosecutor has filed charges. No regulatory body has launched investigations. The defendants—Davis, the exchange executive, the presidential family—deny everything. Lawyers argue that no one ever promised appreciation of the tokens, that their assistants operated independently, and that no illegal agreement was ever made.

Meanwhile, lawyers for harmed investors have filed civil suits against the specialized platform and the consultants, accusing them of repeated “pump and dump.” The cases remain pending with no significant developments.

The metaphor of the dirty bath: when innovations become cover-ups for scams

When directly confronted, Ng responded with a metaphor: in the “financial tub” genuine innovations and dirty contents—dog poop, baby poop, even pathogenic bacteria—can coexist. The “child” of real innovation, he argued, still exists.

Following his logic, Davis, who launched tokens that collapsed in hours and flooded the market with manipulated schemes, was clearly “the one dirtying the bath.” When asked if he ever asked Davis to stop operating on his platform, Ng said he saw him only once, for about 20 minutes, and found it “difficult to judge.”

This stance—protecting the infrastructure by claiming it cannot be controlled how people use it—had become the mantra of deregulated crypto finance. Exchanges provide only “neutral technology.” Consultants offer only “technical support.” Promoters say they “don’t know anything.”

The portfolio of conflicts of interest

As the meme coin mania waned, it became clear that the real beneficiaries were those controlling the infrastructure. The presidential family, instead of withdrawing from the sector, continued diversifying their interests:

A government project to “purchase strategic reserves of an important cryptocurrency for the United States” was announced. A son owns a mining company of the same asset. In June 2025, “Fight Fight Fight LLC” launched a new trading app, although other children publicly disavowed it, saying it was not approved by the family.

Zanker, the old mentor of the couple, announced a themed mobile game incorporating elements of previously launched tokens. The token prices did not move.

Epilogue: the cycle continues

Today, the meme coin industry has lost 92% of its volume since January’s peak. Investors were “squeezed” until the money ran out. Many influencers promoting these tokens moved on to new games—predictive markets where they bet on elections and sporting events, once considered “illegal gambling” but now permitted by the new government.

Davis has become an invisible pariah. His social media remains inactive, but the blockchain shows his wallet continues trading tokens.

Ng remains seated in his office above a noodle bar in Singapore, building new features that make it “even easier to issue tokens.” A recent developer created a token called “Lickspittle Empire.” Ng watched while chewing dried pork, seemingly indifferent to symbolic meanings.

As long as the people building the infrastructure and those manipulating it remain unaccountable, the cycle will continue. Because, as Ng observed while eating noodles: “The world wants to make money quickly, without effort.” And the meme coin game is perfect for turning that instinct into measurable profits— for those who know where to be when the crash hits.