- President Milei’s promotion of the LIBRA token led to a $4.5 billion rug pull, causing massive losses for investors.
- Opposition lawmakers have filed for impeachment, accusing Milei of embarrassing Argentina on an international scale.
There’s some serious drama unfolding in Argentina right now. President Milei’s gotten himself into hot water over this meme coin called LIBRA. Here’s what went down, he gave this token a shoutout on social media, which sent its price shooting up. But then the whole thing came crashing down, and people lost their money.
People are furious, and we’re not just talking about angry tweets. Opposition politicians are talking about impeachment. They’re saying President Milei messed up by getting mixed up with this crypto scheme, arguing it’s made Argentina look bad on the world stage.
The LIBRA Token Fallout
On Saturday, President Milei tweeted about the LIBRA token to his 3.83 million followers on X. The token, launched on the Solana blockchain, quickly gained traction, reaching a market cap of $4.5 billion and a price of $4.56.
However, the excitement was short-lived. On-chain analysis revealed suspicious activities, including insider wallet cashouts and liquidity pool sales. As doubts grew, Milei deleted his tweet, and the token’s value plummeted by nearly 100%, crashing to $0.0007113.
The sudden collapse left investors reeling and triggered widespread outrage. Opposition lawmakers, led by Leandro Santoro, have accused Milei of negligence and misconduct. Santoro stated, “This scandal, which embarrassed us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president.”
Investigation and Denials
In response to the backlash, Milei has reported the incident to Argentina’s anti-corruption office (OA) for investigation. His office confirmed the move in a tweet on Sunday, emphasizing that the OA will probe the KIP Protocol, the project behind LIBRA, as well as the national government, including Milei himself.
Additionally, the president has established an Investigation Task Unit (UTI) to examine the events surrounding the token’s launch.
The plot keeps thickening in this Milei crypto drama. His office just came clean about his connection to the “KIP Protocol,” admitting he had two meetings with them this year. But Milei’s singing a different tune now, he’s trying to put some serious distance between himself and this LIBRA mess. His exact words, “I was not aware of the details of the project and once I found out, I decided to not continue giving it publicity.”
This whole situation is pretty unprecedented. Sure, we’ve seen presidents get involved with crypto before, like when Trump had his TRUMP token, or when Touadera backed CAR in the Central African Republic, but this is different, having a sitting president caught up in what looks like a crypto rug pull.
Unlike those other presidential crypto adventures, this one’s got some serious teeth with potential legal trouble and political fallout that could end Milei’s presidency. Today, LIBRA is trading at $0.0007113 with a trading volume of $23,530 down 76.52%.