Melania memecoin team sells $1.5M tokens as price pumps 21%

The team behind the Official Melania Meme (MELANIA) token sold more than $1.5 million of tokens over the past three days, suggesting a programmatic selling strategy that may add downside pressure to the token.

The team behind the Melania memecoin sold another $930,000 worth of tokens on April 28, two days after selling $630,000, according to blockchain data.

The selling patterns point to dollar-cost averaging (DCA), an investment strategy used to buy or sell a predetermined amount of an asset at fixed times, according to crypto intelligence platform Lookonchain. It flagged the activity in an April 28 post on X, writing:

“The #Melania team didn’t just add or remove liquidity to sell $MELANIA, they also employed a DCA strategy for direct sales!”

Related: Libra, Melania creator’s ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ memecoin crashes 99%

The DCA strategy involves investing a certain amount of funds in an asset at regular intervals, often employed by investors to manage emotional decision-making.

Despite the team’s selling, MELANIA staged an over 21% recovery during the past seven days, but remains around 96% below its all-time high of $13.7 recorded on Jan. 20 — the date of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration — according to CoinMarketCap data.

Meanwhile, some large investors are betting on the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin’s price decline.

A newly created whale wallet deposited $1.33 million worth of USDC (USDC) stablecoins to open a short position with 2x leverage at $14.7. The short would be liquidated if the Trump token’s price rises above $21.50, according to Lookonchain.

Related: Bitcoin still on track for $1.8M in 2035, says analyst

Memecoins were the second-most-dominant cryptocurrency investment narrative in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting that the market is still recycling old narratives.

Memecoins captured around 27% of the global investor mindshare, while artificial intelligence tokens held over 35%, according to a quarterly research report by CoinGecko.

“Seems like we have yet to see another new narrative emerge and we are still following past quarters’ trends,” said Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief operating officer of CoinGecko, in an April 17 X post.

However, the launch of the TRUMP token and its disappointing performance may have marked the end of the memecoin supercycle, which saw the weekly usage activity on memecoin launchpad Pump.fun stage a significant decline — from 2.85 million active wallets on the week of Jan. 20, to just 1.44 million as of March 31.

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