Javier Milei, Argentina's President, Inadvertently Promoted a Rug Pull That Defrauded Investors of $107 Million

The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, kicked off a fresh controversy on Saturday, when he announced a crypto token $LIBRA and later withdrew his support after its price spiked several hundred percent within hours.

Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, sparked controversy on Saturday by announcing a crypto token, $LIBRA, and then withdrawing his support after its price skyrocketed several hundred percent within hours.

While Milei deleted the promotional post from his X profile and later clarified that he did not support such campaigns, the team behind the LIBRA project reportedly obtained over $107 million from the token’s liquidity pool.

Onchain data analytics platform Lookonchain discovered that a total of 8 wallets relating to the LIBRA team benefited the most, amassing approximately $107 million by adding and removing liquidity as well as claiming fees. The funds included $57.6 million of USDC and $49.7 million of SOL.

The $LIBRA team has cashed out $107M!😱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

As the team managed to accumulate such an enormous amount in what can be described as a “soft-rug pull” strategy, many investors lost vast sums of money. Popular crypto trader Ash Crypto highlighted that a single user lost over $5 million while buying the LIBRA token in multiple transactions.

Some analysts have identified this event as the biggest rug-pull in the history of crypto, wiping out over $4.4 billion from the market. The investors who lost funds were predominantly retail investors andAfter deleting the announcement from X, Milei shared in a subsequent post that “supporting a supposed private enterprise with which I obviously have no connection whatsoever.”

Milei stated that he was not fully aware of the project details when he initially supported and shared the post. “After having become aware of it I decided not to continue spreading the word” he emphasized.

Hace unas horas publiqué un tweet, como tantas otras infinitas veces, apoyando un supuesto emprendimiento privado del que obviamente no tengo vinculación alguna. No estaba interiorizado de los pormenores del proyecto y luego de haberme interiorizado decidí no seguir dándole…

“To the filthy rats of the political caste who want to take advantage of this situation to do harm,” he stated, “I want to say that every day they confirm how vile politicians are, and they increase our conviction to kick them in the ass.”

According to DexScreener data, the LIBRA token surged from $0.27 to $4.56 within an hour of launch. The token has accumulated 24 hour trading volume of $1.14 billion and it is currently trading near $0.23 with total liquidity of $51 million.