"Milei's Libra Endorsement Leads to $251M Crypto Scandal"

Argentina's President Javier Milei has found himself at the center of a cryptocurrency scandal following the collapse of a token he promoted, Libra. According to research firm Nansen, 86% of those who invested in the memecoin lost money, amounting to a staggering $251 million in total losses.

Libra's market value briefly surged to $4.5 billion after Milei's endorsement, only to collapse rapidly, wiping out gains for most investors. Meanwhile, a small group of insiders walked away with a combined $180 million in profits. The scandal has raised concerns about the role of political figures in financial markets and the risks associated with volatile digital assets.

The drama began on Friday night when Milei directed his followers to a website claiming to raise funds for small businesses in Argentina through Libra. This triggered a frenzy in the crypto market, with automated trading bots attempting to front-run gains. Within hours, the memecoin's market value soared to $4.5 billion, attracting thousands of retail investors looking for quick profits.

As Nansen's on-chain data later revealed, a select group of wallets had already positioned themselves to profit. These insiders swiftly liquidated their holdings while retail traders rushed in, creating an artificial price surge before an inevitable crash. By the time Milei deleted his original post on X five hours later, Libra had already plummeted by 80% from its peak.

The collapse of Libra has also triggered fears about the stability of the Solana blockchain, which hosted the token alongside thousands of other speculative cryptocurrencies. Solana's token plunged by 20% from Friday evening through Tuesday, while the total value of assets locked in the network plummeted from $12.1 billion to $8.29 billion, according to DefiLlama data.

The controversy has renewed concerns over the risks of decentralized finance (DeFi) projects, where anonymous insiders can manipulate token prices before offloading their holdings onto unsuspecting traders. The backlash against Milei's involvement in the Libra scandal has raised broader questions about political endorsements in the crypto space.

As outrage spread across Argentina, suspicions emerged over whether the president had fallen victim to a scam himself or if his account had been compromised. By Monday, Milei attempted to distance himself from the fias