Argentinian President Javier Milei Distances Himself from Catastrophic Solana-Based Memecoin $LIBRA Launch

Argentinian President Javier Milei is now distancing himself from the catastrophic launch of the Solana-based memecoin $LIBRA, which saw its market cap collapse from $4.5 billion to just $200 million within hours.

Argentinian President Javier Milei has distanced himself from the disastrous launch of the Solana-based memecoin $LIBRA, which saw its market cap plummet from $4.5 billion to $200 million in a matter of hours.

The token was heavily promoted on Milei's official X account, sparking concerns about insider manipulation and the validity of the token's economic claims.

At 5:01 PM ET, Milei's account announced $LIBRA, describing it as a "private project" that would aid Argentina's economy by providing funds for small businesses.

The project's website, which was hastily registered just hours before the launch, offered limited transparency beyond a Google Form for funding applications.

Within three hours, on-chain analytics firm Bubblemaps detected that insiders had cashed out $87.4 million, with 82% of the token's supply concentrated in a single cluster.

Large holders reportedly manipulated liquidity pools on Meteora to extract profits while retail investors incurred the losses.

According to data from DexScreener, the token has generated over $1.1 billion in trading volume since its launch.

Milei later stated that he was "not familiar with the details" and deleted his post.

This backpedaling has drawn increased attention, particularly in light of his previous involvement in the Coinx World crypto scandal in 2022.

Before assuming the presidency, Milei had endorsed Coinx, a company that was later accused of fraud and making false investment promises.

Send a tip to Kyle Baird, DL News' Weekend Editor, at kbaird@dlnews.com.