The President of Argentina has caused a stir in public opinion with the announcement of the LIBRA token, positioning it as a tool to support the national economy by providing capital to small businesses and startups.
LIBRA Memecoin plunges 90% after being shilled by the President of Argentina and then "disowned". Image: Fox News
Announcement and then denial
Javier Milei, the President of Argentina, announced the launch of the LIBRA cryptocurrency. This project is part of the "Viva La Libertad Project", with the aim of supporting the Argentine economy by providing capital to local businesses and startups.
After the president's announcement, LIBRA quickly reached a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of up to $4.5 billion, only to then "dump" to below $200 million. At the time of reporting, this token has almost "hit the ground", dropping 30 times from its peak and currently only worth around $0.16 per token. What is the truth behind this?
Price fluctuations of LIBRA on the 15m chart, screenshot from Dexscreener at 12:00 PM on 15/02/2025
Surrounding mysteries
The mysteries began to be uncovered by the crypto community. One notable detail is that 82% of the total token supply has been unlocked and allocated to a cluster of interconnected wallets, raising concerns about centralized control and the potential for market manipulation.
another presidential meme
— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) February 14, 2025
82% of $LIBRA is held in one cluster
no tokenomics shared—trade with caution https://t.co/Nx4Ar2kqoL pic.twitter.com/VUCtpKi5mU
Deployer also sent $LIBRA tokens to multiple wallets who sold into single sided liquiditiy and then removed the Liquidity
— Wazz (@WazzCrypto) February 15, 2025
At least $20M $SOL from this wallet alone extracted https://t.co/aTyiNGII4J pic.twitter.com/nPeDCQ0LlI
Lookonchain also accused the LIBRA team of earning $107 million by manipulating liquidity and insider trading.
8 related wallets have earned 57.6 million USDC and 249,671 SOL ($49.7 million) by adding and removing liquidity and claiming transaction fees.
The $LIBRA team has cashed out $107M!😱
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 15, 2025
8 wallets related to the $LIBRA team have obtained 57.6M $USDC and 249,671 $SOL($49.7M) by adding liquidity, removing liquidity and claiming fees.
Wallets:
DefcyKc4yAjRsCLZjdxWuSUzVohXtLna9g22y3pBCm2z… pic.twitter.com/vpd7nGyMHQ
11 insider wallets have made a profit of $43.8 million by dumping LIBRA. These wallets were created just a few hours before the launch of LIBRA, with funds already prepared to buy the token as soon as trading began.
11 insider wallets have made a profit of $43.8M by dumping $LIBRA!
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 15, 2025
These 11 wallets were created a few hours before $LIBRA was launched, and funds to buy $LIBRA were prepared in advance.
Insider wallets:
CMLkomKRxisYj8NbDX9F67rjTzB4aXy5mmCLU15cDbv5… pic.twitter.com/fPmkfS3iQ4
Amid the controversy, Milei deleted the promotional post and issued a clarification. He stated that he has no connection to this project and simply shared information about a private business that he had not thoroughly investigated. He also did not hesitate to criticize his political opponents who are exploiting the situation to attack him.
"A few hours ago, I posted a tweet, like many times before, to support a private business that I have absolutely no connection to.I was not aware of the details of this project. After thoroughly investigating, I decided not to continue promoting it (and that's why I deleted the tweet).[...]
Hace unas horas publiqué un tweet, como tantas otras infinitas veces, apoyando un supuesto emprendimiento privado del que obviamente no tengo vinculación alguna.
— Javier Milei (@JMilei) February 15, 2025
No estaba interiorizado de los pormenores del proyecto y luego de haberme interiorizado decidí no seguir dándole…
Furthermore, although initially promoted by President Milei, the official website of the project clearly states that LIBRA is a private initiative, developed by KIP Network Inc. This is a Web3 platform for AI applications, backed by Animoca Ventures.
KIP Protocol has been actively operating in Argentina, participating in blockchain initiatives of the Buenos Aires government and even meeting with Milei in October last year. At this point, questions arise about the actual role of the Argentine government in this project - is this a national project or simply a private project with a government label to attract attention?
Until noon today (15/02), KIP Protocol has clarified the LIBRA project, confirming that this is a private initiative, with no government involvement. They also emphasized that this success was achieved thanks to the trust and support of the community, and denied any connection between President Milei and LIBRA.KIP Protocol marks historic milestone in LATAM expansion 🔥
— KIP Protocol (@KIPprotocol) October 25, 2024
Tech Forum in Argentina was one for the books! Our Co-Founder and CEO @julian_kip met with President Javier Milei to outline how KIP's decentralized AI technology aligns with Argentina's vision to become a global tech… pic.twitter.com/Bqk3zjZS7f
Many experts in the Blockchain industry have voiced warnings about the risks associated with the distribution model of LIBRA. Conor Grogan, Product Director at Coinbase, accused this project of being a scam. He argued that reputable projects usually use multisignature wallets and strict KYC measures to ensure transparency. However, LIBRA seems to lack these security and control mechanisms, so the risk of price manipulation and investor risk is inevitable.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…
Today's event is reminiscent of some similar cases in recent times:Assume this is a scam, account funded by a nokyc exchange, usually these sorts of large launches are planned in advance and have multisigs and such pic.twitter.com/eLFOlA2CVo
— Conor (@jconorgrogan) February 14, 2025
US President Donald Trump also launched a memecoin in January, just a few days before his second term inauguration.
The President of the Central African Republic (CAR) also unexpectedly launched a national memecoin with the code "CAR", with the statement that this is an experiment on how meme culture can connect people, drive development and make the country a global Blockchain hub.
