The Argentine president promoted on Friday a memecoin, $LIBRA, whose market capitalization almost immediately reached an ATH of $4.56 billion but which very soon later plummeted to a floor of $131 million. At the time of writing this post, its MC has moved between $400-470 million, even reporting some gains of more than 100% in very specific runs. Milei clumsily retracted his endorsement—nothing "safer" for a crypto investor than a Milei-style president backing a memecoin—after first insisting on X and assuring Bloomberg Línea that it was not a scam. “A few hours ago I posted a tweet, like so many other infinite times, supporting an alleged private venture of which I obviously have no connection whatsoever,” reads the beginning of Milei's retraction.
Source“I was not aware of the details of the project and after I became aware of it I decided not to continue promoting it (that is why I deleted the tweet),” he said immediately afterward. Milei's irresponsibility in this affair was scandalous, to say the least. This Saturday night the Office of the President was forced to issue a statement acknowledging that Milei was fully aware of the project. “Last October 19, President Javier Milei held a meeting with representatives of KIP Protocol in Argentina in which he was told of the company's intention to develop a project called “Viva la Libertad” to finance private ventures in the Republic of Argentina using blockchain technology,” the statement reads.
Then, at the end of last January, there was a meeting between Milei and Hayden Mark Davis, who would provide the technological infrastructure for the KIP Protocol´s project, finally launched on the Solana blockchain. Davis answers for Kelsier Ventures, a company “supporting web3 visionary projects at every stage... from ideation to market launch and beyond”. The official statement from Balcarce 50 says that “[Mr.] Davis did not have and does not have any connection with the Argentine government and was presented by the representatives of KIP Protocol as one of its partners in the project”, contradicting Davis' claim of hours before in which he presents himself as “Milei's advisor”.
Addressing Libra: pic.twitter.com/lUlAADWnkq
— Kelsier (@KelsierVentures) February 16, 2025
SourceThe owner of the Rivadavia Armchair defends that he daily shares entrepreneurial projects aimed at creating jobs and getting investments in Argentina. In general, Milei's X account describes an erratic sequence of retweets with unverified content or moving the overloaded narrative of La Libertad Avanza, but pinning the promotion of a project in Solana's volatile network is a different matter. “After the repercussions that the launch of the project had and to avoid any speculation and not to give it greater diffusion, [Milei] decided to remove the publication,” claimed the government. Here we return to the discussion of responsibility.
The collapse of $LIBRA did not start when Milei deleted the tweet endorsing it, but after many experts began to point out as suspicious the supply distribution and other dynamics. So, the liberal administration was referring here to these bad signals that began to spread rapidly in social media. But wasn't Milei oriented in all the elements of a project that he was going to promote directly? Does the libertarian govern so lightly? The Office of the President ends its statement by announcing a two-pronged investigation that will target Milei himself if applicable and also all individuals and companies linked to the launch of $LIBRA.
KIP Protocol on Friday
Today was the launch of the ambitious Viva la Libertad project to help private enterprises in Argentina, and the $LIBRA currency has been a success. We want to thank everyone for their trust and support.
— KIP Protocol (@KIPprotocol) February 15, 2025
To address all questions: we would like to clarify that this is a private…
KIP Protocol on Saturday
Announcement on $LIBRA
— KIP Protocol (@KIPprotocol) February 15, 2025
There has been a lot of misinformation surrounding the $LIBRA launch and KIP’s role. To clarify:
The token launch and market making were fully handled by @KelsierVentures, represented by Hayden Davis, the initiators of the project. None of the wallets…
A seis manos publicamos este dossier de los nombres que empiezan a aparecer atrás del escándalo de la criptomoneda $LIBRA que promocionó Javier Mileihttps://t.co/ubFvPTrnww
— Mariano Vidal🦖 (@MarianoVidal7) February 15, 2025
The Pandora's box is now open
The debate in Argentina has just begun. “From Hayek, you went to Ponzi, and [so] you went to grass BAD. From your official X account, you promoted a private cryptocurrency, created by who knows who. You inflated its value taking advantage of your presidential investiture”, former President Cristina Fernández threw in the face of the one-time outsider who drove Kirchnerism out of the Pink House. “Look where you brought us to with your madness! You turned Argentina into a casino where the croupier is the President himself. THAT IS YOUR MARKET FREEDOM... that of the casino. Your mask has fallen off”, added Fernández via X.
“This scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president,” said an opposition congressman. The president of the National Tax Court comes to Milei's aid distinguishing between a “pump and dump” and a “rug pull”, but a constitutional lawyer says that Milei's conduct indeed “implies the violation of several penal norms, the public ethics law (based on art. 36 of the Constitution) and other norms applicable to these situations”. Tomorrow will be a busy day in the media, as this affair is just starting.
Argentina inflation hits five-year low in win for Milei https://t.co/9AqUELLbOe pic.twitter.com/zYztxaB6BY
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 13, 2025
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