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Argentinian President Javier Milei has been one of the most controversial political leaders since taking office in 2023. As the 59th President of Argentina, he inherited an economy suffering from world-high inflation at 213%, rising by 13% month over month. Through his ‘draconian’ fiscal policies, he managed to bring this monthly inflation rate down to 2.4%—the lowest it has been in over four years. Many, including Donald Trump and other members of the Republican Party, have praised this outcome. Milei has also expressed positive views on Bitcoin and has been highly critical of central banks, advocating for greater financial freedom in transactions.
However, none of that matters now. Yesterday, Milei was at the center of one of the biggest rug pulls in crypto history. An official post from Milei’s X account promoted a contract address for a coin called ‘LIBRA,’ claiming it would boost the Argentine economy and fund small businesses and startups in the country.
Red flags were raised immediately. The project’s website had only been created hours before the X post, and the tokenomics were deeply suspect—82% of the total supply was concentrated in a single cluster of addresses.
Regardless, many within the memecoin space saw an opportunity to ride the next ‘TRUMP’ memecoin wave and win big. The project drew massive liquidity from the wider memecoin market, with the TRUMP token losing $500 million in market cap as investors redirected funds into LIBRA. Within the first two hours, over 50,000 wallets had become holders of LIBRA.
Within just 40 minutes of Milei’s post, LIBRA reached a market cap of $4.6 billion before insiders and the wallets holding 82% of the supply began cashing out. They made $87.4 million within the first three hours. Milei then deleted his initial post promoting LIBRA and later stated that he was "not aware of the details of the project." He claimed that after learning more, he decided to stop promoting it and removed his post. Following this, LIBRA’s market cap collapsed to $200 million, wiping out over $4.4 billion. The wider memecoin market also took a hit, with total losses exceeding $6 billion.
This is a truly disgraceful act by the Argentine President, and as a result, he is now facing threats of impeachment from the opposition party for his role in promoting the rug pull. If Milei is impeached, it could set a precedent to deter other celebrities and politicians from launching these scam memecoins. As it stands, there are no real consequences for such actions.
Following Trump’s memecoin launch last month, we’ve seen numerous celebrities and politicians attempt to replicate its ‘success.’ None have succeeded, and Milei’s debacle is arguably the worst yet. These schemes are a massive red flag for the crypto market, draining liquidity from legitimate projects while damaging the credibility of the entire space. The market is caught in an unhealthy cycle, and unless retail investors learn to avoid these traps, these scams will continue to drain liquidity, driving more investors out of crypto as they lose money in rug pulls.
This won’t be the last time we see a memecoin launched by a high-profile figure. Think back to 2021 and 2022, when NFTs were the craze—every celebrity seemed to be launching a project, and nearly all of them ended in scams or rug pulls. Today, it’s memecoins. Anyone can create one in under two minutes.
The moral of the story? STAY AWAY FROM THEM. Focus on the long-term goal of holding Bitcoin. Memecoins are nothing more than distractions, and 99% of the time, they end in a rug pull.
*All prices are denominated in USD unless stated otherwise*
Written by Alexandar Artis
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