Argentine president’s meme coin drama is getting weirder
And calls for Milei’s impeachment are getting louder.
A meme coin caused Argentine President Javier Milei a lot of trouble over the weekend. Today, the fallout is spiraling out of control, and calls for his impeachment are getting louder. This comes just a few hours before he embarks on a scheduled trip to the US.
On Friday, crypto-friendly Milei touted the $LIBRA meme coin on X, which quickly caused its price to skyrocket.
“This private project will be dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy,” Milei wrote in a now deleted post, adding a link to the $LIBRA cryptocurrency project. Shortly after, the coin’s market capitalization shot to $4.5 billion, according to TRM Labs.
A few hours later, however, Milei deleted the post, which caused the token’s price to collapse.
“Within three hours of the initial post by President Milei, $LIBRA’s value plunged by about 89 percent,” TRM reported. “$LIBRA’s extreme volatility sparked immediate questions as to whether or not this could be a ‘rug pull’ or ‘pump-and-dump’ scheme.”
As of February 18, the token’s market cap stood at $79 million, according to CoinGecko.
Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, told Sherwood News that there are still many open questions about $LIBRA.
“What is clear is that the token was pumped, in part due to President Milei’s post, and then plunged to almost zero within a short time,” he said, adding that $LIBRA’s launch has many hallmarks of a rug pull or pump and dump.
It all began with this post at 5:01 PM ET from Javier Milei.
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) February 15, 2025
As seen during President Trump's memecoin launch, the first hour was full of speculation:
Was this a hack or a real launch?
It turned out to be real as multiple other Argentinian politicians posted the news. pic.twitter.com/cL0ZQgxtCB
“It is so important that investors understand the high risk and extreme volatility when investing in meme coins,” Redbord continued. “They should be treated more like a collectible than an investment or store of value like bitcoin.”
Redbord said this case also illustrates how public officials can become embroiled in scandals in the age of 24/7 social media and markets.
Matters worsened for Milei on Monday evening following a TV interview in which he tried to downplay his role in the debacle. In a clip that wasn’t aired (but has become viral), the interviewer stopped the line of questioning, saying that “it could cause him legal trouble.”
Some crypto experts said the saga puts a stain on crypto’s reputation.
“The blatant criminality and insider trading that we’re seeing in the crypto market right now is awful to see,” said Nic Puckrin, financial analyst and founder of Coin Bureau. “But make no mistake — the blame for the $LIBRA meme coin disaster, and other pump-and-dump schemes like it, lies on the shoulders of the regulators, and they are the only ones that can fix this.”
For him, this underscores the urgent need for more regulation, rather than a “regulation by enforcement” approach.
“Whether it’s the Department of Justice or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, meme coins have to be regulated by someone. Otherwise, $LIBRA will happen again and again,” he added.
The downfall of solana-based $LIBRA also took a toll on the broader crypto market, hitting meme coins and solana particularly hard.
“Bitcoin has held relatively steady compared to altcoins, but it’s clear that sentiment is low,” Puckrin said, adding that the reputational damage to crypto will take a while to heal.
As for Milei, in addition to calls for his impeachment, Wired reported that he faces “more than 100 complaints against him.”
Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy is a financial journalist who’s written for Dow Jones, The Financial Times Group, and Business Insider.
