Milei risks impeachment after endorsing $107M Libra rug pull

Argentine President Javier Milei is facing calls for impeachment after endorsing a cryptocurrency project that collapsed in what analysts are calling a massive insider scam.

Retail crypto investor sentiment took a hit this week amid another multi-billion memecoin meltdown, while Jan3 CEO Samson Mow warned of a potential “price suppression” for Bitcoin, which continued its crab walk in a price range that “looks very manufactured.”

Here's a summary of the seven most impactful DeFi developments over the past seven days, as covered by Cointelegraph.

Milei risks impeachment after endorsing $107M Libra rug pull

Argentine President Javier Milei is facing calls for impeachment after endorsing a cryptocurrency project that collapsed in what analysts are calling a massive insider scam.

The Solana-native Libra (LIBRA) token started its rally on Feb. 14, shortly after Milei posted about the project on X, formerly Twitter. His now-deleted post included a website and contract address for the token, which was a “private project” dedicated to “encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy.”

The Libra token briefly rose to a peak market capitalization of $4.56 billion at 10:30 pm UTC on Feb. 14 before falling over 94% to a $257 million market cap in just 11 hours after the token debuted for trading on decentralized exchanges, Dexscreener data shows.

Milei may now face impeachment after Argentina's fintech chamber acknowledged that the case may be a rug pull.

“This scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president,” opposition lawmaker Leandro Santoro told Reuters, according to a Feb. 16 report.

After the token’s collapse on Feb. 15, Milei issued a statement on X, noting that he was not aware of the details of the project when he endorsed it and that he has “no connection whatsoever” with the “private enterprise” that launched the token.

Bitcoin’s price movement ‘looks very manufactured’ — Samson Mow

Bitcoin’s price action is raising concerns about possible market manipulation as the cryptocurrency continues trading in a tight range despite billions of dollars in institutional inflows.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been range-bound for over two months, trading between the $92,400 support and $106,500 resistance since Dec. 18, Cointelegraph Markets Pro data shows.

Bitcoin managed to briefly escape this range after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, when it rose to a $109,000 all-time high before dropping back into its previous range.

Bitcoin’s range-bound price action may be manufactured based on the trajectory of the past months, according to Samson Mow, CEO of Jan3 and founder of Pixelmatic.

“It seems like it’s some sort of price suppression,” said Mow during a panel discussion at Consensus Hong Kong 2025, adding:

“The very tight range in which you’re trading just doesn’t look natural at all,” Mow added.

Despite Bitcoin’s temporary lack of upside, industry watchers remain optimistic about Bitcoin’s trajectory for 2025, with price predictions ranging from $160,000 to above $180,000.

Vitalik Buterin criticizes crypto’s moral shift toward gambling

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin voiced concerns over what he described as a “moral reversal” in the crypto industry, particularly regarding criticism of Ethereum’s stance on blockchain gambling.

In an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Feb. 20, Buterin was asked to share his frustrations with the crypto industry in the past year. He highlighted his disappointment with the backlash against Ethereum for not embracing blockchain-based casinos:

Buterin added that if the blockchain community had this kind of “moral reversal,” he would no longer be interested in participating in the blockchain space. Despite this concern, he noted that his experiences with community members offline have provided a different perspective.

Pig butchering scams stole $5.5B from crypto investors in 2024 — Cyvers

Pig butchering scams have emerged as one of the most pervasive threats to cryptocurrency investors, with losses in the billions of dollars across 200,000 identified cases in 2024, according to a report from onchain security firm Cyvers, shared exclusively with Cointelegraph.

Pig butchering is a type of phishing scheme that involves prolonged and complex manipulation tactics to trick investors into willingly sending their assets to fraudulent crypto addresses.

Pig butchering schemes on the Ethereum network cost the industry over $5.5 billion across 200,000 identified cases in 2024, according to the report.

Among the top 10 most affected platforms, Cyvers identified three of the five largest centralized exchanges (CEXs), a crypto-friendly bank and an institutional trading platform.

The industry is still recovering from 2024