Impeachment Threats Loom Over Argentina’s President Javier Milei Following Cryptocurrency Controversy
Argentina’s President Javier Milei is currently facing serious threats of impeachment after his endorsement of a cryptocurrency named LIBRA. This digital asset, which was marketed as a means to support small businesses, experienced a dramatic crash, resulting in billions of dollars in losses within a matter of hours, according to reports from Reuters.
In a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), Milei touted LIBRA as a privately managed initiative aimed at generating funds for small and medium-sized enterprises in Argentina. He emphasized that he had no personal financial stakes in the project. However, the situation quickly spiraled out of control when the token’s value surged to a staggering market capitalization of approximately $4.5 billion. This surge was largely attributed to confusion surrounding the legitimacy of Milei’s announcement, leading to speculation that his account might have been hacked or that he had fallen victim to a deceptive scheme.
Just five hours after making the post, Milei deleted it, claiming he was “not aware of the details of the project.” Upon gaining more information, he decided to cease any further promotion of LIBRA. This swift retraction led to market panic, with insiders quickly cashing out a total of $87.4 million worth of tokens, as reported by data sources Kobeissi Letter and Bubblemaps. Consequently, the token’s market cap plummeted by 90%, erasing over $4 billion in value.
The Argentine fintech chamber has raised alarms, suggesting that the LIBRA incident could potentially be a classic case of a “rug pull,” where developers abandon the project after siphoning off funds from initial investors. In response to this unfolding scandal, which has placed Argentina in an embarrassing position on the international stage, lawmaker Leandro Santoro, a member of the opposition coalition, has called for an impeachment request against the president. He stated, “This scandal, which embarrasses us on an international scale, requires us to launch an impeachment request against the president,” as reported by Reuters.
