Argentine President Javier Milei is under fire for promoting a \u2018memecoin\u2019 whose value skyrocketed before collapsing.<\/p>\n
Milei promoted a cryptocurrency called \u2018$LIBRA\u2019 on X on Friday night, which began trading minutes prior. It quickly rose above $50 before its value dipped below 4 cents.<\/p>\n
Buyers accused the cryptocurrency’s creators of a possible \u2018rug pull\u2019 scheme, in which the cryptocurrency’s early investors lured others to inflate its price before quickly withdrawing their funds.<\/p>\n
\u2018Rug pull\u2019 means draining a cryptocurrency’s liquidity pool.<\/p>\n
Political opponents have filed dozens of lawsuits accusing Milei of ethics violations, while the main left-wing Peronist opposition bloc said it would initiate impeachment proceedings against the president and accused him of \u2018participating in crypto scams\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018The truth is, if you go to the casino and lose money, what is the point of claiming that you know he has these characteristics?\u2019 he asked in an interview with the TN<\/i> news channel broadcast on Monday night.<\/p>\n
Milei said in a tweet on X last week that he was promoting the little-known cryptocurrency $LIBRA because he believed it would spur economic growth by funding small businesses.<\/p>\n
\u2018I’m spreading the word because I think this is to fund Argentines who are doing projects and don’t have access to financing,\u2019 he told TN<\/i>.<\/p>\n
In a television interview on Monday, Milei said the scandal, which analysts say is the biggest crisis for his administration since he took office in December 2023, was a \u2018slap in the face\u2019.<\/p>\n
Asked if he thought he had made a mistake, Milei said, \u2018No, because I also acted in good faith.\u2019<\/p>\n
Despite his tweet, Milei insisted that everyone who invested in the coin did so voluntarily.<\/p>\n
\u2018I didn’t incentivize it, what I did was spread it,\u2019 the Argentine said, adding that he did not benefit from cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n
\u2018I am a techno-optimist … and this was proposed to me as a tool to help fund Argentine projects. It’s true that I got a slap in the face trying to help Argentinians,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Milei’s office said the president had met twice with representatives of companies involved in the creation of the cryptocurrency but was \u2018not involved at any point\u2019 in its development.<\/p>\n
It added that the president has asked the executive branch’s anti-corruption office to investigate whether he or any government actor committed any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
In his interview, Milei said, \u2018The most interesting lesson is … .\u2009I need to put more filters, it can’t be that easy for people to reach me,\u2019 Milei said in an interview.<\/p>\n
Although Milei said he had nothing to do with the cryptocurrency project and rug pull, a key figure behind the Libra token allegedly influenced Milei’s inner circle through payments to his sister Karina Milei.<\/p>\n
Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Ventures, allegedly boasted of his dominance over Milei in text messages sent in mid-December.<\/p>\n
\u2018He is in my control,\u2019 Davis wrote, suggesting that Milei sent dollars to his sister, who \u2019signed whatever he said and did what he wanted.\u2019<\/p>\n
Wallets linked to Davis and Kelsier Ventures reportedly made more than $100 million in profit before the token fell more than 95%.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, although Milei’s interview was claimed to be \u2018live\u2019, video clips spread on social media raised suspicions that the interview was pre-recorded.<\/p>\n
Moreover, it was suggested that some of interviewer Jonatan Viale’s questions were edited out of the broadcast to avoid putting Milei in a difficult situation.<\/p>\n
There were also allegations that a team of Milei’s advisors, including his sister Karina, Economy Minister Luis Caputo, and presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni, scrutinized all the questions in the interview and that the entire interview was \u2018a hoax\u2019.<\/p>\n
Argentina’s stock market fell more than 5% on Monday, while the peso lost 2% against the dollar in a key parallel currency market.<\/p>\n
The country’s fintech chamber argued that few Argentines were financially affected by the collapse of the cryptocurrency, arguing that analysis of X posts showed that most $LIBRA buyers were in the US and Asia.<\/p>\n
The chamber added that the cryptocurrency was never listed on exchanges used by the \u2018vast majority\u2019 of Argentine crypto users.<\/p>\n
Milei’s opponents are unlikely to achieve the two-thirds majority needed in Congress to remove the president; blocks in the center say they will not support the proposal.<\/p>\n
The mainstream right-wing PRO, an ally of Milei’s newly formed La Libertad Avanza coalition, said the incident was \u2018serious\u2019 as it concerns \u2018the country’s credibility … and the president’s entourage\u2019 but accused leftist leaders of \u2018political opportunism\u2019 in calling for the president’s removal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentine President Javier Milei is under fire for promoting a \u2018memecoin\u2019 whose value skyrocketed before collapsing. Milei promoted a cryptocurrency called \u2018$LIBRA\u2019 on X on Friday night, which began trading minutes prior. It quickly rose above $50 before its value dipped below 4 cents. Buyers accused the cryptocurrency’s creators of a possible \u2018rug pull\u2019 scheme, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[6797,1511,6802,6800,4559,2052,6805,6807,6804,4107,1601,6803,6808,6798,6806,6809,6799,6801,1987],"class_list":["post-7934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","tag-libra","tag-argentina","tag-argentine-politics","tag-crypto-scam","tag-cryptocurrency","tag-economic-growth","tag-financial-scandal","tag-fintech","tag-hayden-davis","tag-impeachment","tag-javier-milei","tag-kelsier-ventures","tag-la-libertad-avanza","tag-memecoin","tag-peso","tag-pro","tag-rug-pull","tag-small-businesses","tag-stock-market"],"yoast_head":"\n