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The developers responsible for a cryptocurrency released by US First Lady Melania Trump are now accused in legal documents of orchestrating a market manipulation plot.

Coin Release and Value Spike

The $MELANIA tokens were made available for under a dollar each on January 19, the day before Donald Trump was inaugurated.

Alongside the Melania cryptocurrency, Donald Trump released his own digital currency just ahead of the inauguration ceremony.

Shortly after launch, the price of the $MELANIA cryptocurrency skyrocketed to $13.73 per unit.

Rapid Decline in Value

Yet, the value then collapsed almost as quickly, and is now approximately a dime – less than 1% of its peak price.

Meanwhile, the $TRUMP token achieved a maximum of over forty-five dollars and now trades for $5.79.

Legal Allegations and Plaintiffs' Position

The investors claim that the currency's developers planned the scheme knowing that the digital currency's value would plummet.

The First Lady herself is not named in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs stated they do not think she was culpable, but accused the digital currency firms of leveraging her and other familiar faces as window dressing for their criminal operations.

Exchange Platform Involvement

In newly filed federal filings, claimants allege leaders of the Meteora digital asset exchange, where $MELANIA was first exchanged, of creating a operation that permitted them to indirectly purchase large quantities of the digital token.

Associated individuals then quickly resold these virtual tokens, earning significant gains while leading to the market to collapse, per records entered in Manhattan federal court.

Wider Proceedings

The charges about the Melania token have been included in court cases concerning various other cryptocurrencies, which started in the month of April.

Trump-associated entities has reportedly generated in excess of a billion dollars in pre-tax gains from several digital currency-linked products and companies over the past 12 months.