What happened?
A class-action lawsuit accuses Meteora co-founder Benjamin Chow and associates of running a coordinated fraud that used celebrity endorsements from Melania Trump and Javier Milei to pump-and-dump multiple memecoins and steal at least $57 million from retail investors. The complaint says insiders used Meteora’s Solana-based liquidity pools, whitelist and freeze controls, and a central coordinating wallet to corner token supplies and create fake price spikes. Plaintiffs are asking for disgorgement of profits, treble damages under RICO, and a court-appointed receiver to take control of the upgradeable smart contracts.
Who does this affect?
Retail crypto buyers who jumped into $MELANIA, $LIBRA and similar tokens were directly harmed, many losing large portions of their investments when insider wallets dumped positions. It also drags down the reputations of the public figures whose names were used, plus investors, builders and services in the Solana and broader DeFi ecosystems. Exchanges, influencers, and future token projects that rely on celebrity marketing or upgradeable/centralized contract features will face more scrutiny and legal risk going forward.
Why does this matter?
This case hurts market trust in memecoins and celebrity-backed tokens, which can reduce retail demand and make these markets far more volatile and fragile. If regulators and courts act, we could see stricter listings, more enforcement, and higher compliance costs that lower liquidity and slow new token launches. That shift would push capital away from risky meme-style projects and toward more transparent, regulated crypto products, driving price pressure and repricing risk across related tokens and platforms.