Argentina’s President Javier Milei wiped out the meme coin market in just five hours today—potentially taking his reputation down with it. Here’s how it unfolded: At exactly 10:01 PM UTC, Milei posted on X, announcing the launch of $LIBRA as a move to “boost Argentina’s economy.”
At first, people weren’t sure if Milei was serious. Some speculated his X account had been hacked, while others assumed it was just another political stunt. But once several Argentine politicians confirmed it was real, retail traders rushed in. Within minutes, $LIBRA skyrocketed to a $4.6 billion market cap.
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The entire situation was absurd—even by meme coin standards. There was no whitepaper, no tokenomics, no investor protections—just a poorly designed website linking to a Google Form. The site’s bold pitch? “Funding small projects to boost Argentina’s economy.” In reality, it was nothing more than a blatant liquidity trap.
On-chain data revealed that the $LIBRA domain was registered just hours before launch—no public owner, a one-year registration, and multiple restricted domain statuses. Every red flag pointed to a blatant cash grab.
By the time traders started asking questions, it was already too late. According to Bubblemaps, insiders had siphoned $87.4 million within three hours, with 82% of the supply concentrated in a single cluster.
Then came the real sell-off.
At 10:40 PM UTC, $LIBRA hit its all-time high—only for large holders to immediately dump their tokens. Millions were liquidated in minutes, with some insiders pocketing over $4 million each before the market even realized what was happening.
By press time, $LIBRA had plunged below $600,000 in market cap, erasing $4.59 billion in value. Brutal.
The selling was so aggressive that only 27% of transactions were actual sales. That means for every insider dumping millions, there were two retail traders panic-buying the dip. More than $1.1 billion in volume was traded, but by then, the only ones making money were the ones who got in before the public knew what hit them.
Javier deleted his announcement tweet and tried to distance himself. Speaking in Spanish via a post on X, he said:
“A few hours ago I posted a tweet, as I have so many other times, supporting a supposed private enterprise with which I obviously have no connection whatsoever. I was not aware of the details of the project and after having become aware of it I decided not to continue spreading the word (that is why I deleted the tweet). To the filthy rats of the political caste who want to take advantage of this situation to do harm, I want to say that every day they confirm how vile politicians are, and they increase our conviction to kick them in the ass.”
The fallout didn’t stop with $LIBRA. Trump’s infamous meme coin, $TRUMP, lost $500 million in market cap overnight. The entire meme coin market bled out over $6 billion in the aftermath. More than 50,000 wallets held $LIBRA before the collapse, and most of them are worthless as of press time.
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On-chain analysts began tracing the wallets behind the largest sell-offs—and that’s when things took an even darker turn.
A well-known trader, LeBron, raked in $4.56 million from $LIBRA in just one day, according to Lookonchain. His wallet history paints a clear pattern: $8.9 million from $MELANIA, $3.2 million from $TRUMP, and $1 million from $HARRYBOLZ.
LeBron’s $LIBRA Play: A Masterclass in Dumping
His $LIBRA strategy was straight out of the playbook. He accumulated 128.8 million tokens for just $4,807.19, averaging $0.037 per token. Once prices skyrocketed, he offloaded in waves, securing a multimillion-dollar payday—hours before the crash wiped out everyone else.
Crypto Twitter Erupts Over the Scam
Traders didn’t stay silent. Crypto Twitter exploded with outrage and accusations.
One user speculated, “This is how the CIA funds itself now. Meme coins are their bread and butter. Stay away from anything unverified and able to be rugged. PERIOD.”
Another questioned the terminology: “Can we stop calling these rug pulls? Because by calling it that, we’re suggesting it was unexpected.”
A particularly furious trader didn’t hold back:
“How the fck you retrds trust a nigga that look like Willy Wonka on a 5-day fenty bender? Y’all deserve to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. I don’t think it’s a good idea that presidents of countries launch meme coins.”
That wasn’t all. Moonshot listed $LIBRA before the launch and delisted it right after insiders dumped $100 million. Kelsier Venture, the company allegedly tied to $LIBRA’s creation, was linked to Arunkumar Sugadevan, a notorious Indian serial rug puller. His on-chain footprint connected him to $MELANIA, $ENRON, and OG.Fun—all of which had similar pump-and-dump histories, according to this one investor who said he and his friend lost over $2 million in $LIBRA.
TRON founder Justin Sun also spoke out. Commenting under Javier’s post, Justin said:
“I have great respect for President Milei. I believe that he should take some responsibility in this matter, urging the culprits to return the funds to the victims and assume the corresponding legal responsibilities. Protecting investors is a very serious legal duty, and we must take it seriously.”
Javier built his entire political career on fighting corruption and government abuse. Now, his name is directly tied to the biggest meme coin rug pull in history.
One trader called it out: “Javier made his whole campaign about stopping corruption and people abusing the government to drain resources. Then, once in power, he uses his political position to launch a token for his own personal benefit, to likely make 9 figs.”
Others compared his “I had no idea” defense to previous celebrity rug pulls, especially after rap star Kanye West exposed an influencer a week ago. One user said:
“Kanye posted an offer he refused. He promotes a rug pull. Then says his account was hacked after the rug. We saw the exact same play by Dean Norris. The same thing is done here ‘oops wasn’t me.’ Assange did it too. Rugged $55m from the DAO and blanked the community after.”
The real question? Who was actually behind $LIBRA? And will anyone ever be held accountable?
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