Official Trump (TRUMP) developer pulls $4.6M liquidity, bridges all USDC to Ethereum

Just ahead of the Official Trump (TRUMP) token unlock, one of the meme developers pulled liquidity from the token. On-chain data shows $4.6M in USDC were taken out and bridged to Ethereum. 

The developer behind Official Trump (TRUMP) drained some of the token’s liquidity. A wallet linked to the project launch took 4.6M USDC after removing liquidity in the past day. The selling came just a day before the first unlock for TRUMP, which will release another 20% of the supply. 

The developer’s wallet still holds over 15.3M TRUMP. Despite this, the developer’s involvement renewed expectations that the upcoming unlocks may increase selling pressure. 

In addition to whale trades, the DEX liquidity pool is facing ongoing selling pressure, with 706 on-chain wallets selling and only 456 buying. Based on volumes, however, most of the sellers are smaller wallets, while buying comes from whales with slightly bigger orders. TRUMP is seen as a risky trade, which may lead to unexpected rallies. 

In the past day, the top TRUMP seller whale continued to take profits, locking a total of $28M in net earnings. 

TRUMP developer drain liquidity from Solana to Ethereum

After taking $4.6M from the liquidity pool, the developer immediately bridged the funds to Ethereum. The USDC stablecoins were then moved to an address identified as Coinbase Prime. The move coincides with the Trump family dedication to the Ethereum ecosystem, through their World Liberty Fi fund. 

USDC is the preferred store of value for World Liberty Fi, though it is unknown if the profits from TRUMP are lumped with the earnings from the DeFi project. Currently, the Trump family holds at least 25.43M USDC as its main storage, based on wallets identified by Arkham Intelligence.

TRUMP still carries over $327.6M in liquidity for its main decentralized pair, remaining one of the most funded meme tokens. This would also allow the team and early investors to continue extracting value without causing major panic. 

After the sale, the token traded at $7.95, with minor slippage for the past day. The TRUMP meme token does not react to timely news or social media trends. 

The asset mostly moves based on the influence of trader whales, who are often taking profits. In the past day, two prominent whales bought TRUMP for $5M USDC. Both of the identified wallets later sold the tokens for a small profit, as the token bounced from lows of $7.80. 

Celebrity memes lag behind overall market recovery

The recent liquidity removal is similar to the behavior of Melania (MELANIA) team wallets. The token was used to extract value by creating, then draining liquidity pools. After the recent liquidity operations, MELANIA lost more ground, sinking to $0.42. 

The presence of insiders for celebrity tokens has made investors more wary. The TRUMP rally in the past week is much weaker compared to the overall recovery of Solana meme assets. TRUMP only recovered by 6%, while other Solana tokens easily gained over 22%. 

TRUMP is still bundled with Solana memes, remaining the token with the biggest market capitalization. However, the asset is not backed by a community or a cult, despite riffing off Trump’s personality.