The crypto world is now furious when wallets linked to the Memex coin of Melania Trump were given 1.23 million Meteora (MET) tokens.
The verified blockchain data of SolScan showed that two wallets that received an airdrop of the coins on Thursday, melania-liquidity1.sol and melania-liquidity2.sol, received $784,200 and $454,724 in MET, respectively.
Analysts doubt insider stake
Analysts and investors were quick to attack the airdrop, primarily after it was known that Kelsier Ventures founder Hayden Davis was among the recipients of the airdrop, the company behind the MELANIA coin. One of the people on X wondered what made Davis eligible, as the move was described as unbelievable. Others also accused Meteora of rewarding insiders, as the tokens were transferred via the OKX exchange.
The co-lead of Meteora, called Soju, defended the initiative a few hours prior to the airdrop. According to him, wallets and wallets attached to LIBRA would not be rewarded, and the company had partnered with Detective and Rugcheck to prevent dubious addresses. Even with these guarantees, the discovery of MELANIA-linked wallets among the top recipients has raised new questions about transparency.
Ethical and legal controversies
This airdrop occurs at the same time as a court filing that Meteora co-founder Benjamin Chow and Hayden Davis were involved in a coordinated scheme to scam coins. The filing asserts that they at least filed 15 tokens, such as MELANIA, LIBRA, and ENRON, to rig markets. The lawsuit alleges that the two entered into a celebrity-backed scheme to sell more tokens, and they sold vast quantities of tokens at high prices, resulting in substantial losses for retail investors.
Although Melania Trump is not a defendant, her connection with the token has drawn both political and ethical scrutiny. In early 2021, shortly after the launch of the meme coin by President Donald Trump, the MELANIA coin briefly hit a $7 billion market capitalization, before crashing by 99 percent to settle around $80 million.
Airdrop response and the effect on the market
Many participants of the airdrop, despite the backlash, commended the distribution process and the payout amount by Meteor. According to CoinGecko, MET is currently the 269th-largest company in the world by market capitalization, having a market value of 263.2 million. However, according to reports by Arkham Intelligence, three wallets connected to the Trump meme coin network had nearly 4.2 million MET deposited into them and then transferred the money to OKX.
The event has brought controversy to the issues of fairness and insider access in airdrop events. It has also sparked criticism of projects that exploit the names of political figures to generate profits without their consent.
The Meteor airdrop has mirrored the existing lack of transparency and accountability in the crypto sector. As courts are almost ready to hear lawsuits, and public confidence remains threatened, investors remain uncertain about whether celebrity-related tokens can be conducted ethically in an already volatile market.
