Key Notes
- Analysis reveals 86% of traders lost $251M collectively, while select winners earned $180M, suggesting a coordinated pump-and-dump scheme.
- Investigators linked LIBRA's development team to MELANIA token, with evidence of insider trading and profit-taking through multiple addresses.
- The scandal's impact extended beyond LIBRA, causing a $40B drop in the overall meme coin market and damaging Argentina's crypto reputation.
On 14 February, the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, published a post in X with a link to the website and address of the contract token LIBRA. He called it a ‘private project’ that ‘will be dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy by funding small Argentine businesses and startups.’
Javier Milei just DESTROYED the memecoin market:
Hours ago, Argentinian President Milei launched a memecoin, $LIBRA , for "the growth of their economy."
Within 5 hours, over -$4.4 BILLION of market cap was erased.
Is this the biggest rug pull in history?
(a thread) pic.twitter.com/t4T69r851d
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) February 15, 2025
Soon, LIBRA’s market cap reached a peak of $4.56 billion. Just within 3 hours of the launch, insiders in LIBRA began cashing out. LIBRA’s market cap is down to $200M.
After the price collapse, Milei published a new post accusing political opponents. ‘I was not aware of the details of the project, and after having become aware of it, I decided not to continue spreading the word (that is why I deleted the tweet),’ he noted.
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
Insiders… a Great Sea of Insiders
According to the Bubblemaps post on X, LIBRA and MELANIA (owned by the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump) were created by a single development team.
The researchers noted that one address made over $2.4M on MELANIA and sent all the profits to another wallet linked to the creator of MELANIA. ‘This means the creator of MELANIA — or someone close to their team — sniped their own launch,’ they noted.
Related article: Binance Launches MELANIA Perpetual Contract
Bubblemaps noticed that weeks later the same wallet was funding DEfcyK, the creator of LIBRA. It also sniped a token and made $6M in profit, using multiple side addresses funded via CCTP.
According to GMGN , an unknown user spent $900,000 to buy LIBRA at an average price of $0.26945, and sold it all at an average price of $2.9139. He made a profit of $8.7M in one hour, which is the address with the highest total profit.
As The Block reported , Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy revealed he was going to become a consultant on the project and purchase the token upon launch. That’s why he got 6M LIBRA, but later returned the gift after the project’s advisor, Hayden Davis, told him not to disclose the gift.
According to lmk’s analysis, based on transaction history, at least 24 traders lost more than $1M on LIBRA and at least 61 addresses lost more than $500,000. The largest loss wallet spent $5.6M to buy 2.1M tokens and sold all of them for $430,000, with a loss of $5,17M.
24 traders lose $1M+ on $LIBRA ! 61 traders lose $500K+ based on transaction history.
The biggest loser realized $5.17M loss! He spent $5.6M to buy 2.1M token in total, and ended up sold these token for $430K!
More on 👉 https://t.co/2Jkc0aK7J4 https://t.co/CwFwhyq5Ov pic.twitter.com/2tx4se0G5o
— lmk.fun 🦜 (Prev. Scopescan) (@lmkfun) February 15, 2025
Nansen’s analysts identified 15,431 wallets that had a profit or loss on the LIBRA token in excess of $1,000. 86% of them collectively lost $251M, while the remaining few winners earned $180M.
He ‘didn’t promote it’, he ‘shared it’
The Argentine opposition threatened to impeach the president because of his connection with LIBRA, according to Reuters . Argentina’s fintech chamber acknowledged that the case could potentially be a rug pull.
Argentine lawyers sued the president Milei, for promoting LIBRA on social media, as they told the Associated Press. ‘Within this illicit association, the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential,’ said Jonatan Baldiviezo, a lawyer and one of the plaintiffs.
Related article: Vitalik Butterin Praises Argentina and Latin America Over LIBRA Scandal Controversy
The office of the Argentine president insisted that Milei was not involved in the development of LIBRA. According to a post on the X platform, the Anti-Corruption Office will determine whether there has been misconduct by any member of the national government, including the President himself.
La Oficina del Presidente informa que el pasado 19 de octubre el Presidente Javier Milei mantuvo un encuentro con los representantes de KIP Protocol en Argentina en el que se le comentó la intención de la empresa de desarrollar un proyecto llamado “Viva la Libertad” para…
— Oficina del Presidente (@OPRArgentina) February 16, 2025
Despite the accusations, Milei reposted the LIBRA token purchase tutorial on X. Although he had previously claimed that he would no longer advertise the token on his social networks.
Milei stated in an interview with the Argentine TV channel Todo Noticias that he was not going to convince people to buy LIBRA: ‘I didn’t promote it, I shared it.’
‘I’m not an expert. My specialty is economic growth, with and without money,’ he said. ‘As a guy who’s a super technology enthusiast seeing the possibility of a tool to finance entrepreneurs’ projects, I spread the word.’
Milei stated that ‘maybe four or five’ Argentines lost money. Most investors were ‘Chinese and Americans’, he noted.
An unedited video has appeared online showing President Milei’s advisor, Santiago Caputo, interrupting a Todo Noticias interview to prevent the president from making unauthorized statements about the LIBRA case.
LIBRA token’s $4 billion pump-and-dump scheme has triggered a broader market downturn. As per the data by CoinMarketCap, the overall meme coin market wiped out more than $40 billion from its market cap in the last 30 days.
It is still difficult to predict how the launch and ‘sharing’ of the LIBRA token will end for Milei. However, this story is sure to be remembered by crypto investors as the largest rug pull by the official person.
nextDisclaimer: Coinspeaker is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This article aims to deliver accurate and timely information but should not be taken as financial or investment advice. Since market conditions can change rapidly, we encourage you to verify information on your own and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.
