While Argentina’s President Javier Milei was busy promoting cryptocurrency projects on social media, his latest endorsement turned into a financial nightmare. The $LIBRA token, which he enthusiastically backed before hastily deleting his promotional tweet, managed to reach a staggering $6 billion market value within hours of launch. Talk about a wild ride.
The token’s price skyrocketed to $4,978 per unit before spectacularly crashing to less than a dollar. Classic crypto drama. But here’s where it gets interesting: two accounts controlled a whopping 70% of the token supply, and insiders managed to cash out approximately $107 million before the whole thing went sideways. This type of concentration follows a common pattern where meme coin creators retain large portions of tokens for profit. Not suspicious at all, right?
The blockchain data revealed a messy truth – 82% of tokens were concentrated in a small cluster of addresses, and the project used one-sided liquidity pools to extract SOL and stablecoins. Blockchain specialists weren’t exactly thrilled with the transparency situation. The token claimed to finance small Argentine companies, though no details about the application process were ever provided. BirminghamCyber analysts suggested the president’s account might have been hacked.
Meanwhile, Milei, who had previously faced criticism for promoting CoinX, suddenly couldn’t remember the details of the project he’d just endorsed.
The fallout was swift and brutal. The crypto community watched in horror as the apparent rug pull triggered a 95% price drop. The chaos didn’t stop there – it sent shockwaves through the wider memecoin market, with the TRUMP token losing $500 million in market cap. Some critics even called for Milei’s impeachment, which probably wasn’t the kind of attention he was hoping for.
Now Argentina finds itself in the middle of renewed discussions about cryptocurrency regulation. It’s a familiar story in the crypto world: big promises, bigger numbers, and an even bigger mess when it all falls apart.
For Milei, who positioned himself as a crypto-friendly president, the $LIBRA fiasco has become an embarrassing reminder that in the world of memecoins, even presidential endorsements can’t guarantee legitimacy.
