Argentine President Javier Milei Involved in Pump-and-Dump Meme Coin Scheme

High-caliber meme coin launches have become the norm in the crypto space. Since Donald Trump debuted his famous Solana-based token, more presidents have taken this approach, which has often ended badly for investors.

Argentine President Javier Milei was briefly involved in a pump-and-dump meme coin scheme early Saturday, promoting a token that crashed over 95%.

High-caliber meme coin launches have become the norm in the crypto space. Since Donald Trump debuted his famous Solana-based token, more presidents have taken this approach, which has often ended badly for investors.

Argentine President Milei is the latest president to endorse a meme coin. In a now-deleted tweet, he promoted a Solana-based token with the ticker LIBRA.

However, unlike most others—as seen with Trump and Central African Republic’s president Faustin-Archange Touadera—Milei cut back his support for the meme coin. The pro-crypto president claimed in a follow-up tweet that his new disposition came after he became aware of the project’s details.

LIBRA Crashes Nearly 100% Following Milei’s Tweet

Following his repudiation of LIBRA, the once-flourishing meme coin crashed to almost nothing. For context, the token surged to a peak price of $4.56 but has since crashed over 95% to around $0.19.

As usual, the hype around the token attracted huge buy-ins, with its market cap surging to $4.5 billion at a time. However, Milei’s tweet ending support for the token did not just crash its valuation to under $200 million but also inflicted severe losses on investors chasing elusive gains.

Coordinated Scam Act? Milei’s Brief Involvement Raises Eyebrows

Meanwhile, the meme coin drew the attention of market participants and on-chain analytical firms alike. Blockchain data platform Bubblegum was one of the first to identify a concerning detail of the LIBRA token.

In a tweet, the platform highlighted an unbalanced asset distribution, noting that about 82% of the asset’s supply is on one cluster. Furthermore, Bubblegum stated that the project did not share its tokenomics as seen in Trump and First Lady Melania’s meme coins.

$LIBRA TEAM IS CASHING OUT

They already made $87M by removing USDC and SOL from liquidity pools https://t.co/hRGnRPTDiE pic.twitter.com/aiDmODKi6o

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) February 15, 2025

Moreover, when the token started pumping, Bubblegum disclosed that the LIBRA team was dumping the asset’s liquidity pool. For perspective, a liquidity pool is a collection of assets locked on a smart contract to ensure seamless trading in a decentralized network (DEX).

The token’s developers added one-sided liquidity on DEX Meteora, replacing Solana and USDC in the liquidity with LIBRA. Bubblegum revealed that they made over $87 million using this trick.

Traces of Insider Trading Found in LIBRA Launch Saga

Other developments surrounding the token suggested that the LIBRA launch was a well-coordinated effort to defraud investors. Blockchain sleuth EmberCN also disclosed traces of insider trading among individuals involved with the meme coin.

In a tweet, EmberCN noted that three wallets had a sniper entry on the LIBRA token, buying the meme coin in the exact second that President Milei promoted it. Notably, those addresses withdrew funds from centralized exchanges during the hours leading up to the tweet in preparation for the event.

Meanwhile, the three wallet addresses “Gr3eiF,” “2NHGzd,” and “HyzGo2” bought 3.34 million LIBRA ($1 million USDC), 5.1 million LIBRA ($1.1 million USDC), and 1.97 million LIBRA ($500,000), respectively. The analysis shows that the wallets made at least $20.18 million from the trade.

Community Reacts Trail Milei’s Involvement in LIBRA Dump

Reactions trailed Milei’s involvement in the LIBRA token saga, as observers expressed skepticism about the latest meme coin trend among national leaders. Into The Cryptoverse CEO Benjamin Cowen called the meme coin launch “insane” but admitted that the US president trod a similar path.

Sonic Lab co-founder Andre Cronje regrets the changing narrative in the crypto space. He argued that the industry was slowly turning from a utility-minded sector to presidents and countries dumping tokens “in full crime mode.”