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Co-founder of Meteora, the platform behind the Trump and Melania token launches, Ben Chow has resigned following insider trading allegations.
The Solana-based platform has launched a number of meme coins, including TRUMP and MELANIA ones. A recent launch of the LIBRA token sparked allegations of insider trading, after the coin’s value plummeted over 90% within just hours of its launch.
Co-founder Meow – a pseudonym – released a statement on X confirming Chow’s departure, citing “a lack of judgement and care about some of the core aspects of the project” as to why his business partner is leading the company, underlining that it is “unfortunately unacceptable”.
“I’d like to reiterate my confidence that no one at Jupiter or Meteora committed any insider trading or financial wrongdoing, or received any tokens inappropriately,” he wrote. “I believe [Ben Chow] when he says there was no financial inappropriateness in dealing with partners.
“While I am 100% confident about Ben’s character, as a project lead he has also shown a lack of judgement and care about some of the core aspects of the project (given its current size and reputation) over the past couple of months.”
What’s next for Meteora?
Meow went on to state that the company would be “looking for new leadership”, as well as confirming that a third-party investigation would be conducted.
“We are hiring an independent 3rd party (Fenwick & West, one of the most reputable law firms in the world) to investigate and issue a report which they will publish independently,” he wrote.
The allegations of insider trading have raised ethical concerns around the launch of high-profile tokens, like the ones Meteora specialized in, particularly as Argentinian president Javier Milei is currently also under investigation. Chow himself has not made a public statement since a series of posts on X on Saturday, February 15.
He first maintained that Meteora’s involvement in the LIBRA launch was limited to providing technical support, highlighting that the team “never had any access to the tokens or to Milei.”
Chow went on to claim that Meteora did not play a role in the decisions leading to the launch or any market-making activities.
Featured image: Midjourney
