Argentina’s President Javier Milei Backtracks on Controversial Memecoin Promotion
In a surprising turn of events, Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has retracted a tweet that initially endorsed a memecoin named Libra. This cryptocurrency experienced a meteoric rise, reaching a staggering market cap of $4.4 billion, only to plummet dramatically by over 95% shortly thereafter.
In his now-deleted tweet, Milei described Libra as “a private project dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy,” and included a contract address linked to the Solana blockchain. Following the president’s endorsement, Libra’s value skyrocketed by more than 2,000% within just forty minutes. However, this surge was short-lived as early investors began to cash out, leading to a rapid decline in the coin’s price.
The account @KobeissiLetter on X shared a series of fascinating BubbleMaps screenshots that suggested insiders were liquidating their tokens. They did this by creating one-sided liquidity pools on a platform called Metora, which involved using only Libra tokens to withdraw SOL and stablecoins.
Trading activity for Libra peaked at an impressive $1.1 billion shortly after its launch. However, the trading dynamics appeared to be skewed; there were approximately 74,500 individual buy orders compared to merely 28,900 sales. This disparity indicated that larger sell orders were impacting the overall trading activity, effectively diminishing the frenzy among retail investors.
In response to the fallout from the memecoin debacle, Milei took to X to clarify his position. He stated, “I was not aware of the details of the project,” distancing himself from the tumultuous events that unfolded. In his message, he acknowledged, “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.” He further explained, “After having become aware of it, I decided not to continue spreading the word (that is why I deleted the tweet).”
The aftermath of the Libra sell-off reverberated throughout the broader memecoin market, significantly impacting other cryptocurrencies. Notably, the memecoin TRUMP lost an estimated $500 million from its market capitalization in a mere thirty-minute window following the decline of Libra.
