Key Points
- Milei is reportedly facing impeachment threats in Argentina, following LIBRA support, mainstream media reports.
- Last week, he supported a crypto project that turned out to be a huge rug pull.
Argentina’s Javier Milei’s presidency is reportedly in danger, following the LIBRA saga – a crypto project launched on Solana that he supported and turned out to be a massive rug pull. This week, Milei is heading to Washington, in hopes of meeting the US President Donald Trump, according to Bloomberg reports.
Milei, Charged With Fraud Over LIBRA Promotion
Argentina’s President, Javier Milei, has been reportedly charged with fraud by Argentine lawyers over the LIBRA memecoin promotion, the Associated Press reports. He is currently facing threats of impeachment in the country.
A Bloomberg article notes today, that after Milei promoted the LIBRA memecoin, his presidency in Argentina entered “crisis mode”.
The LIBRA Chaos
The memecoin, initially promoted by Milei last week, rapidly surged, but lost over $4.4 billion in market cap, shaking the memecoin market.
Bloomberg reported that investors like Barstool Sports founder, Dave Portnoy, suffered great losses, calling the project, “the biggest rug pull of all time.”
The events are now reportedly the subject of an internal government probe, and important members of the crypto industry are “pointing fingers at each other” as Milei tries to recover following the chaos.
Bloomberg coted Henry Elder at UTXO Management who said that the LIBRA saga is a travesty, showing how some crypto industry members “lack any moral compass.”
Milei is reportedly preparing for a visit to Washington this week to meet US President Donald Trump and secure his support for Argentina to receive more money from the IMF in a new program that’s still under negotiation, and potential exemptions from Trump’s tariffs, according to the same notes.
Bloomberg highlighted the confusion over the weekend in which contradicting tales emerged.
They noted that after LIBRA crashed, Davis, the CEO of Kelsier Ventures, a crypto venture capital firm, said in a video on X on February 16 that he was Milei’s advisor, working with him and his team on much bigger tokenization and other crypto-related issues in Argentina.
Argentina’s Presidential Office Issued Official Statement
However, Milei’s office issued an official statement saying that Davis did not have any connection to the Argentine government.
According to the official notes, Argentina’s President decided to create an Investigation Task Unit (UTI) composed of representatives of the bodies and organizations with powers related to crypto, financial activities, money laundering, and others which will investigate the launch of LIBRA and all companies/people involved in the operation.
The official statement concluded by saying that Milei, who has demonstrated his commitment to truth through his actions, is committed to the due clarification of the incident.
Some voices in the crypto industry noted that the whole LIBRA operation might have been a “political setup” to try and impeach Milei. Given the chaos, Milei should have never posted about the project from an inexperienced team, and shouldn’t have promoted it.
After initially promoting the project on X, Milei deleted his tweet and said that he was not aware of the complete details.
During the weekend, The Kobeissi Letter also issued an analysis of the project’s launch, highlighting that it had completely “destroyed the memecoin market.”
It’s also worth noting that Binance’s CZ will donate 150 BNB worth $100,000 to help victims of the LIBRA scam.
