Catastrophic $LIBRA Collapse Leads to Calls to Impeach Argentine President Milei

It looks like being the president of a country and simultaneously being a crypto scammer is in fashion these days. The latest case involving the Argentine president has critics calling for impeachment, with fraud charges reportedly already filed.

It all began last Friday when the Argentinian President, Javier Milei, endorsed a token named $LIBRA — claiming in a since deleted X / Twitter post that the token had been launched to boost the Argentine economy, in particular “by funding small Argentine businesses and startups”.

Spurred on by the Argentine president’s endorsement, the token soared, hitting a market cap of US$4.5 billion (AU$7b) around 10:30pm UTC on February 14. But — as most of us know by now — shitcoins gonna shitcoin.

And this one really shitcoined. Just 11 hours after hitting its peak, $LIBRA had crashed to just US$257 million (AU$403m), a fall of 94%. The crash was triggered by eight wallets linked to project insiders selling off US$107 million (AU$168m) worth of tokens.

In addition to impeachment calls, there are also reports that a group of Argentine professionals, including the former head of the nation’s central bank, have already filed fraud charges against Milei.

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Impeachment Calls After President “Embarrasses” Argentina

Milei now faces the prospect of impeachment. Argentina’s fintech chamber reportedly found the scheme may have been a rugpull, and opposition politicians are keen to hold the president responsible for his involvement. Reuters reports that Argentine politician Leandro Santoro, a member of the opposition coalition, has called for impeachment:

This scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president.

Leandro Santoro, Argentine opposition politician

Milei seems to have anticipated these calls. Just hours after the collapse of $LIBRA he took to X / Twitter to distance himself from the project while also attacking his political opponents (this post now appears to have been deleted):

In a further concerning development for the president/shitcoin-promoter, Jonathan Baldiviezo, the leader of the group who’ve filed fraud charges against Milei told the Associated Press “within this illicit association, the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential”.

Baldiviezo filed the fraud charges against Milei along with fellow lawyer Marcos Zelaya, an engineer named María Eva Koutsovitis and former chief of the Argentine Central Bank, Claudio Lozano. It’s expected a judge will be assigned to the case for further investigation Monday morning local time.

Where Did $LIBRA Come From?

According to a X / Twitter thread from web3 researcher, @PixOnChain, $LIBRA was cooked up by a man named Julian Peh, the founder of crypto startup KIP Protocol. @PixOnChain says Peh first met Milei at a Buenos Aires crypto forum before joining Argentina’s Blockchain Committee several months later, a role in which he could advise the Argentine president on crypto policy. 

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This is reportedly how Peh pitched Milei the idea of a cryptocurrency which could be used to fund the nation’s small businesses and startups — an idea which was to become $LIBRA. With this, Peh, essentially just some crypto-bro, had the ear of the Argentine president and his cooperation in launching his shitcoin. 

When $LIBRA launched there were obvious red flags — none of the tokens were locked, over 80% of the supply was held by insiders. But as is so often the case in crypto, FOMO kicked in and few investors were aware of what they were buying until it was too late.