Facepalm: You do not typically hear an elected head of a rustic selling a cryptocurrency, a lot much less a memecoin, however that is precisely what Argentine President Javier Milei has finished – and you may think about the way it turned out. Merely hours after he endorsed $LIBRA, it crashed 95% from its peak, resulting in indignant traders and even authorized motion.
The saga started when Milei, identified for his crypto-friendly stance, took to social media to advertise $LIBRA, touting it as a venture devoted to encouraging the expansion of the Argentine economic system by funding small native companies. His submit on X acted as a catalyst, propelling the token’s market capitalization to a staggering $4.5 billion peak.
Nevertheless, the euphoria was short-lived. Inside hours of Milei’s endorsement, a gaggle of eight wallets linked to the $LIBRA group cashed out a whopping $107 million, in response to blockchain analytics agency Lookonchain. This triggered a catastrophic 95% crash within the token’s market cap, plummeting its worth to only $232 million.
Because the mud settled, accusations of an insider “rug pull” started to swirl. A rug pull is a scheme the place builders money out after artificially inflating a token’s worth. The outcome wasn’t all that shocking contemplating an analytics agency referred to as Bubblemaps had earlier warned {that a} staggering 83% of $LIBRA’s provide was concentrated in a handful of wallets.
Within the face of the backlash, Milei swiftly deleted his endorsement submit and distanced himself from the venture, denying any connection to it. His subsequent submit clarifying his position is kind of one thing:
“I used to be not conscious of the small print of the venture and after having turn out to be conscious of it I made a decision to not proceed spreading the phrase (that’s the reason I deleted the tweet). To the filthy rats of the political caste who need to make the most of this example to do hurt, I need to say that daily they verify how vile politicians are, and so they enhance our conviction to kick them within the ass,” he wrote in Spanish.
Hace unas horas publiqué un tweet, como tantas otras infinitas veces, apoyando un supuesto emprendimiento privado del que obviamente no tengo vinculación alguna.
No estaba interiorizado de los pormenores del proyecto y luego de haberme interiorizado decidí no seguir dándole…
– Javier Milei (@JMilei) February 15, 2025
The trade that verified the token, Jupiter, additionally sought to absolve itself of any wrongdoing. Kash Dhanda from the trade asserted that Jupiter was not concerned within the launch, deployment, or market making of $LIBRA.
On the identical time, Julian Peh, the CEO of KIP Protocol – a Web3 agency related to the venture – vehemently denied allegations of a rug pull. Peh claimed that KIP Protocol’s involvement was restricted to allocating capital to Argentine corporations, not because the token issuer or buying and selling entity.
Issues took a flip for the more serious for President Milei when a gaggle of Argentine attorneys escalated the matter by submitting fraud prices. Jonatan Baldiviezo, one of many plaintiffs, accused Milei of being a part of an “illicit affiliation to commit an indeterminate variety of frauds” in an announcement to the AP. The case is anticipated to be assigned to a decide or referred to a prosecutor for additional investigation.
