"Meteora Co-Founder Resigns Amid LIBRA Token Scandal"

Meteora co-founder Ben Chow has resigned from the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) following a controversy surrounding the listing of the LIBRA token on the platform. In a statement released by his co-founder, Meow, who is also the founder of the DEX aggregator platform Jupiter Exchange, Meow expressed confidence in Chow's character but criticized his lack of judgment in handling the LIBRA situation.

Meow stated, "While I am 100% confident about Ben’s character, as a project lead he has also shown a lack of judgement and care about some of the core aspects of the project (Meteora) (given its current size and reputation) over the past couple of months. And this is unfortunately unacceptable. Ben understands this, and has chosen to resign."

The LIBRA token, launched on February 15th, was promoted by Argentine President Javier Milei as a means to benefit Argentine citizens. However, its market capitalization quickly jumped to $4.56 billion before plummeting by 95% within four hours of its launch. The sudden drop was accelerated by an insider team dumping $87 million, according to a blockchain analytics report by Bubblemaps.

The revelation that Hayden Davis of Kelsier Ventures was behind the 'pump and dump' scheme intensified the fallout. Davis was also involved in the creation of TRUMP and MELANIA tokens. Following the scandal, Argentine opposition parties called for President Milei's resignation, alleging his involvement in the LIBRA project. Milei denied promoting the project, stating that he only shared it.

Hayden Davis admitted to insider trading with the TRUMP token but blamed Meteora and Jupiter for their role in the LIBRA scandal as well. In response, Meteora and Jupiter denied having prior knowledge of LIBRA or engaging in insider trading. Ben Chow later stated that Meteora's role was limited to 'IT support' and that Hayden Davis appeared to be a 'trustworthy' market maker/deployer for tokens.

The Davis team's plans to expand to Nigeria and other countries further angered the community. Helius Labs founder Mert Mumtaz suggested that the team should be jailed, stating, "I have no idea who these people even are or why they’re “trusted” — and I supposedly know Solana. Straight