Headline: “Official” TRUMP Memecoin Team Quietly Extracts ~$94M in USDC via Soft Liquidity Unwind
Over the past three weeks, on-chain analyst EmberCN says the team behind the “official” TRUMP memecoin has quietly pulled roughly $94 million in USDC from the project’s liquidity — routing the proceeds straight to Coinbase. Rather than executing a single, dramatic “rug pull,” the team appears to have used a more gradual, calculated method that avoided immediate market panic.
How they did it
On-chain traces show the team relied on Meteora’s Dynamic Liquidity Market Maker (DLMM) on Solana. Instead of providing normal two-sided liquidity (TRUMP/USDC pairs), they deposited only TRUMP tokens at specific price ticks. When the market price later crossed those levels, the Meteora engine automatically swapped those TRUMP tokens into USDC. That single-sided liquidity strategy effectively let the team convert tokens to stablecoins incrementally — collecting USDC in the background while retail buyers continued to trade and attempt to support the price.
Why it matters
This “soft-unwinding” approach produces fewer immediate price shocks than an all-at-once withdrawal: the token doesn’t crater in a single trade, but liquidity is drained steadily, and the project’s backers exit over time. The scale of the activity is striking: even as TRUMP has collapsed more than 90% from its January 2025 peak, withdrawals have accelerated. On Dec. 31 alone, a wallet tied to the core team moved $33 million in USDC off-chain to Coinbase.
Pattern repeats across the “Trump” memecoin ecosystem
Investigators note the same single-sided Meteora technique was used by MELANIA — a token launched shortly after TRUMP — to liquidate positions. MELANIA has tumbled sharply from an all-time high near $74, and steady liquidity removal by its team now looks like a “winding down” phase, per on-chain observers.
Where prices stand
As of Dec. 31, TRUMP was trading around $4.94 (a modest 0.31% gain that did little to obscure the token’s roughly 90% collapse from its post-inauguration peak). The broader “Trump crypto ecosystem” has seen volatility: World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the institutionally framed project officially backed by the President, also ended 2025 well off its highs — down about 56% from its launch peak.
What this raises
Beyond the immediate market impact, the sequence of events has renewed questions about the optics and governance of projects linked to high-profile political figures: should a sitting president have ties to private crypto ventures, and how transparent should those ventures be? On-chain data can reveal activity, but questions about intent, accountability and investor protection remain.
Disclaimer: This summary is informational and not investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading carries high risk; do your own research before making any decisions. Source: AMBCrypto / on-chain analyst EmberCN. © 2025 AMBCrypto.
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