The President Javier Mileiwas wrapped in a scandal after promoting through its X account a cryptocurrency called $ Libra, which turned out to be A scam of between 70 and 100 million dollars, and affected some 40,000 digital wallets. The situation unleashed a wave of criticism and memes that question their involvement in the case.
The presidential promotion and the organization of the scam
Through X, Milei announced the launch of $ Libra, a Token in the Solana Red that was presented as a private investment project in Argentine companies. Unlike memecoins, which are usually sold as a species of speculative “game”, $ LIBRA was promoted as a serious initiative. However, the website of the project and the cryptocurrency were created only a few hours before the presidential announcement, which suggests a deliberate organization to launch the promotion at a strategic moment.
The president did not limit himself to retweeting an existing announcement, but was the one who presented the initiative without previously there being public knowledge about it. In addition, it included the direction of the smart contract, which facilitated the direct purchase of the Token. Its publication was set in its profile for several hours, a sign that it was a priority message.
The mechanics of the scam and the beneficiaries
The Argentine exchange quickly allowed the purchase of the token, while Thousands of investors trusted the implicit support of the president. Shortly after its launch, The $ pound price went from US $ 0.000001 to US $ 5.20generating a speculative boom. However, the founders of the project controlled 70% of the currency supply (when the usual is between 10% and 15%), which facilitated a “rug pull”: a massive extraction of funds that collapsed the price in more than 85% and left thousands of investors without their money.
The company behind $ Libra, Kip Network Inc, is registered in Panama and His CEO, Julian Peh, had contact with Milei in the October Techforum, 2023. This crypto event, in which the president was a speaker, was attended by several companies and figures linked to fraudulent schemes.
Milei’s reaction and background
Before the controversy, Milei eliminated its publication four hours later and said that “it has no link” with the project, justifying that only shared the information without having deepened the details. He did not apologize or assumed responsibility, despite the fact that his promotion was key for the scam to have reach.
It is not the first time that the president is involved in similar situations. In 2021, when he was a deputy, Coinx promoted, a crypto investment platform that was fraudulent and for which he charged at least $ 10,000. He also promoted the token $ vulc of his sponsor on Instagram, linked to a video game that never concretized and was also denounced as a scam.
The impact and reaction in networks
The crypto community and government followers themselves They tried to hold the theory that Milei’s account had been hackeddue to the magnitude of the scandal. However, the lack of rapid official denials weakened that version. The libertarian deputy Lilia Lemoine confirmed that she had not been a hacking.
The episode became a tendency in social networks, where the memes ironized about the responsibility of Milei and his historical rejection of state interventioncontrasting it with the lack of regulation that allowed the scam. With Techforum scheduled for April 2025 and new meetings between Milei and figures linked to the crypto ecosystem, doubts about their relationship with this type of business are still in the air.
By rn
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