Argentina is facing a legal and political crisis as top global law firms, like Burwick Law, prepare lawsuits against President Javier Milei over his involvement in the LIBRA token collapse. Javier endorsed LIBRA on X (formerly Twitter) Saturday, causing its price to explode from $0.006 to nearly $5 within hours. Retail investors rushed in, assuming presidential backing made it legit. Six hours later, LIBRA crashed to $0.84 and its market cap went from $4.6 billion to $400,000 as of press time, triggering mass panic and a wave of sell-offs. Burwick quickly posted on its X that: “If you lost money on $LIBRA, contact Burwick Law to learn about your legal rights. Our firm represents thousands of clients that want to get their money back on crypto losses. This is attorney advertising. Your results may vary.” Argentine lawmakers also immediately called for Javier’s removal. Opposition leader Leandro Santoro declared: “This scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president.” The Argentine Fintech Chamber confirmed that LIBRA fit the textbook definition of a rug pull—a fraudulent scheme where insiders inflate a token’s price, sell off their holdings and leave investors wrecked. The chamber says Javier’s social media post encouraged reckless speculation, and his sudden disappearance from the project crushed investor confidence. Javier’s team scrambled to erase his involvement, deleting all mentions of LIBRA, but investors had already taken screenshots. Legal experts say this could backfire legally, as it suggests an attempt to cover up his role. Jupiter and Kelsier expose insider knowledge on LIBRA Crypto trading platform Jupiter Exchange admitted that some members of its team knew about LIBRA’s launch weeks before Javier’s tweet. In a statement, the company said: “A few members of the Jupiter team knew that there would be, at some point, a token project associated with Argentinian President Javier Milei. We learned of this ~2 weeks ago directly from Kelsier Ventures.” Jupiter further said “It was actually an open secret in memecoin circles that an ‘Argentina Coin’ was going to launch at some point, as evidenced by the many public tweets that have since surfaced. But in keeping with our ethos of confidentiality, we did not speak about it with anyone at all, online or offline. Further, no one on the team received any LIBRA tokens or related compensation at any time.” Jupiter insisted that by the time they added LIBRA to the Strict List and showed the “Verified” tag in its Trenches product, the market cap was already at around $1.5 billion. “LIBRA did not get the “Verified” icon in our default token search until roughly 1 hour after launch,” said Jupiter. They added that there were dozens of imposter tokens launched right after LIBRA, and without Strict List verification it would have been easy for traders to accidentally purchase the wrong token. They explained that: “We take allegations of insider trading EXTREMELY seriously. We have conducted our own investigation and cannot find any evidence of sniping by team members. If you have evidence of Jupiter employees leaking information or otherwise sniping, please reach out directly. If we discover any team members acted on non-public information, we will take quick and decisive action.” Meanwhile, Kelsier Ventures CEO Hayden Davis, who helped launch LIBRA, blamed Javier for the collapse. He said, “Javier’s associates had secured his public support at launch and had assured me that his continued backing was guaranteed throughout the launch.” Hayden said Javier’s sudden withdrawal shattered investor trust and sent LIBRA’s price plummeting. He denied involvement in fraud, stating: “Despite prior commitments, Milei and his team unexpectedly reversed their position, withdrawing their support and deleting all prior social media endorsements.” Hayden also announced that he still controls $100 million in LIBRA treasury funds and plans to reinvest and burn all repurchased tokens. In his own words: “Unless a more viable alternative is presented, I intend to begin the process of executing on this plan within the next 48 hours. I remain committed to transparency and will continue to provide updates as the situation develops.” Argentina launches investigation Meanwhile, Argentina’s government is now investigating the LIBRA scandal. A statement from the Office of the President confirmed that Javier met with KIP Protocol executives Mauricio Novelli and Julian Peh on October 19, 2024, where they pitched a blockchain initiative for Argentina. On January 30, 2025, Javier met with Hayden at Casa Rosada, Argentina’s presidential palace. Government officials say Hayden had no official ties to the state, despite his involvement in LIBRA’s launch. Javier’s office defended his endorsement, claiming: “The President shared a post on his personal accounts announcing the launch of the KIP Protocol project, just as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who want to launch a project in Argentina to create jobs and get investments.” But the Anti-Corruption Office (OA) is not convinced. A special task force of crypto, finance, and anti-money laundering experts is now investigating. The government has promised to hand over all findings to the courts to determine if fraud or criminal conduct took place. Javier’s presidency is now hanging by a thread, lawsuits are piling up, and investors are demanding answers. The scandal is now the biggest crypto rug pull in history, and Argentina is at the center of it all. Cryptopolitan Academy: How to Write a Web3 Resume That Lands Interviews - FREE Cheat Sheet
