LIBRA creators tied to Melania and other short-lived memecoins: Bubblemaps

Bubblemaps analysts say they’re “highly confident” in new evidence that the Libra (LIBRA) memecoin has been launched by the same team responsible for Melania (MELANIA).

In a Feb. 17 post to X, Bubblemaps analysts said new onchain evidence suggests the team that launched LIBRA, or someone close to them, were also the ones who likely launched the Melania token and were responsible for sniping both launches.

The token’s controversial launch has already seen President Javier Milei face calls for his impeachment following the $107 million catastrophe. 

Bubblemaps pointed to a Solana wallet address, dubbed “0xcEA,” as responsible for sniping the launch of Melania Trump’s memecoin on Jan. 19 — earning $2.4 million in profits the move — quickly transferred the entirety of this sum to another wallet on Avalanche. 

Notably, these two wallets are linked by several unique paths, including a number of different funding transactions and crosschain transfers, all of which had been parsed through several Solana wallets along the way in a bid to obscure transaction history. 

“This means the creator of Melania — or someone close to their team —sniped their own launch,” wrote Bubblemaps. 

Several weeks later, the analytics firm noticed that the same 0xcEA wallet had funded the wallet address responsible for creating the LIBRA token. 

Following the launch of the LIBRA token on Feb. 15, the 0xcEA wallet once again sniped LIBRA, clearing $6M in profit. This was also done again using multiple side addresses funded via crosschain transfer protocols from wallets on Arbitrum and Avalanche.

From this near-identical sniping activity on 0xcEA, combined with the CCTP funding patterns, Bubblemaps concluded that the LIBRA and MELANIA tokens were likely launched by the same team. 

Related: Donald Trump’s memecoin drops 38% as wife Melania launches token

The analysts also report the 0xcEA wallet address is also behind a string of other high-profile “pump and dump” token launches, including a fake Robinhood (HOOD) token that rallied to a peak market capitalization of $120M before falling to $12.5 million at the time of publication. 

Libra and Melania tokens crashed within 8 hours of launch

The LIBRA memecoin was endorsed by President Milei immediately after launch. However, the event rapidly turned into a financial catastrophe after insiders reportedly cashed out over $107 million, wiping out nearly 94% of the token’s value in less than four hours. 

According to data from blockchain intelligence firm Lookonchain, at least eight wallets linked to the Libra team quickly siphoned liquidity from the token, pocketing $57.6 million USD Coin and 249,671 Solana, worth $49.7 million at the time. 

The Melania token faced a similar fate. 

Launched on Jan. 19, the official MELANIA token hit a peak value of over $13 billion within four hours but has since slumped 99% to $189 million at the time of publication.

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