"Bitcoin's Price Manipulation Fears Surge as Libra Scandal Implicates Argentine President"

The Libra scandal continues to unfold, with Argentine President Javier Milei facing political pressure after endorsing a cryptocurrency project that collapsed in a suspected insider scam. The Solana-native Libra (LIBRA) token, which Milei promoted on X (formerly Twitter), surged briefly before plummeting over 94% in just 11 hours, erasing over $4 billion from its market capitalization. The project's collapse has led to calls for Milei's impeachment, with Argentina's fintech chamber acknowledging that the case may be a rug pull.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin's price action has raised concerns about potential market manipulation. The cryptocurrency has been trading in a tight range for over two months, with some industry experts suggesting that the price movement appears "manufactured." Samson Mow, CEO of Jan3 and founder of Pixelmatic, noted that Bitcoin's trajectory seems to indicate some form of price suppression, with the cryptocurrency peaking and then chopping sideways in a tight range.

Despite the concerns surrounding Bitcoin's price action, industry watchers remain optimistic about the cryptocurrency's trajectory for 2025. Price predictions range from $160,000 to above $180,000, indicating a bullish outlook for the year ahead.

In other news, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has criticized the crypto industry's moral shift towards gambling. In an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, Buterin expressed his disappointment with the backlash against Ethereum for not embracing blockchain-based casinos, noting that if the blockchain community had this kind of "moral reversal," he would no longer be interested in participating in the blockchain space.

Pig butchering scams have emerged as a significant threat to cryptocurrency investors, with losses totaling over $5.5 billion across 200,000 identified cases in 2024. According to a report from onchain security firm Cyvers, pig butchering schemes on the Ethereum network cost the industry over $5.5 billion, with three of the five largest centralized exchanges (CEXs), a crypto-friendly bank, and an institutional trading platform among the top 10 most affected platforms.

Nearly a quarter of the 200 largest cryptocurrencies have sunk to their lowest price levels in over a year, prompting analysts