Another Trump-linked sell-off? Melania meme team dumps $35.7M in tokens

Insider activity is picking up across Trump family-linked crypto projects, with wallets offloading tens of millions of dollars in tokens.The team behind the Melania Trump-themed meme coin $MELANIA (MELANIA)has sold 82.18 million tokens over the past four months, according to Lookonchain data. Spread across 44 wallets, the sales accounted for roughly 8.22% of the total supply and were exchanged for 244,934 SOL (SOL), worth approximately $35.76 million at the time.The #Melania meme team sold 82.18M $MELANIA(8.22% of total supply) over the past 4 months across 44 wallets, cashing out 244,934 $SOL($35.76M).Most of the $MELANIA tokens were sold through adding and removing liquidity.https://t.co/EJYWtbB5aE pic.twitter.com/gtmRdkNq1yMost of the MELANIA sales were executed through liquidity manipulation, adding and removing liquidity from pools, a method often used to avoid slippage and reduce market impact by minimizing direct sell pressure.In a separate recent move, the team behind the official Trump-themed memecoin, $TRUMP (TRUMP), withdrew $4.4 million in USDC and 347,438 $TRUMP (worth $3.12 million) from liquidity pools. The USDC was bridged to Ethereum, and the tokens were transferred to a new wallet. This kind of activity, pulling liquidity and moving tokens, is a common on-chain pattern seen before insider sales, suggesting that the team may be gearing up to dump.While there’s no direct link between the wallet movements, the timing and tactics point to a broader pattern of coordinated sell-offs across Trump-themed crypto ventures.Are the Trumps scaling back their crypto empire?Earlier this week, a Forbes report revealed that the Trump family quietly reduced its stake in World Liberty Financial (WLFI) from 60% to 40%, executed through undisclosed transactions carried out over a two-week period.The dump was carried out by DT Marks DEFI LLC, a holding company controlled by Donald Trump and his sons. This marked the third stake reduction in just six months, down from 75% in December to 60% in January, and now to 40%.No official comments have been provided regarding the sales by the family, and the reasons for the coordinated sell-offs remain unclear. However, the pattern suggests a strategic effort to reduce exposure while maintaining enough public momentum around the projects.At the same time, major holders of the official $TRUMP meme coin have also been trimming their positions. One whale recently dumped around 375,000 $TRUMP, worth approximately $4.9 million. The $TRUMP token is trading at $8.90 at press time, down roughly 30% over the past month. $MELANIA is down nearly 50% over the same period, now trading at $0.91.