Argentine Court Freezes Assets of LIBRA Meme Coin Creator

Argentine judge freezes assets of LIBRA token creator and intermediaries.

An Argentine federal judge has ordered the freezing of both movable and immovable property, as well as the financial assets of the creator of the meme token LIBRA, Hayden Davis, and two alleged intermediaries involved in fund withdrawals following the coin’s collapse. This was reported by local media. 

The decision followed the investigation’s discovery of potential “indirect payments to public officials” by Davis. Specifically, it concerns a transfer of $507,500 through the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, made 42 minutes after Argentine President Javier Milei posted a selfie with Davis. In the tweet, Davis was referred to as a consultant on blockchain and artificial intelligence matters.

LA TECNOLOGÍA ES ALIADA DE LA LIBERTAD

Hoy mantuvimos una muy interesante charla con el empresario Hayden Mark Davis, quien me estuvo asesorando sobre el impacto y las aplicaciones de la tecnología blockchain e inteligencia artificial en el país. Seguimos trabajando para… pic.twitter.com/LOX4xiyzhA

— Javier Milei (@JMilei) January 30, 2025

The other two individuals involved—Orlando Rodolfo Mellino and Favio Camilo Rodriguez Blanco—are alleged by prosecutors to have acted as transit channels to obscure the tracking of funds. Blanco reportedly assisted in transferring money via bank vaults just hours after LIBRA’s collapse. Subsequently, part of the assets went to Argentine entrepreneurs Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Terrones Godoy, who were lobbying for the token.

Despite the lack of concrete evidence, the court granted the prosecutor’s request. The assets of the three individuals will remain frozen until the investigation concludes to prevent their alienation or transfer and to ensure subsequent confiscation. 

“Monetizing the Image”

According to the case materials, three months before LIBRA’s launch, Novelli and Milei discussed creating projects to “monetize the president’s image.” The entrepreneur claimed that the libertarian leader’s image was a “personal asset” that could be freely used without violating the Public Ethics Law.

Launched in February, the LIBRA coin was positioned as a means to finance small businesses in Argentina. After being promoted on the president’s social media, it reached a capitalization of $4.56 billion, only to plummet by more than 90% within hours. 

Subsequently, Milei deleted the post and stated that he never urged people to buy LIBRA. However, his actions still led to a scandal. The president was accused of fraud, involvement in a Pump & Dump scheme, and faced threats of impeachment.

According to Nansen, nearly 86% of LIBRA traders suffered total losses amounting to $251 million.

International Investigation

The federal case concerning LIBRA in Argentina is being examined alongside an investigation in the United States. The analytics firm Bubblemaps linked the launches of LIBRA and the meme coin of the US First Lady MELANIA to the same team.

According to media reports, the investigation initiated by the US Department of Justice in February focused on the roles of Milei, Davis, Novelli, Godoy, and Julian Peha of KIP Protocol in promoting the token. Representatives of the latter denied involvement in the project. On March 13, lawyer Gregorio Dalbon requested an international arrest warrant for Davis from Interpol due to his involvement in the “troubled” LIBRA.

In October, a class-action lawsuit was filed against DEX Meteora and its co-founder Benjamin Chow, accusing them of fraud involving two presidential meme coins. 

The plaintiffs claim that the reputations of Melania Trump and Javier Milei were used to “legitimize fraudulent tokens.” Chow was described as the “technical architect” of the scheme, while Davis and his firm Kelsier Ventures were held responsible for marketing campaigns. 

The victims allege that the defendants launched and sold at least 15 tokens using a similar scheme. Five of these are mentioned in the lawsuit—LIBRA, MELANIA, ENRON, TRUST, and M3M3. 

In February, Chow claimed that neither he nor Meteora received any tokens or possessed insider information related to the Libra project. That same month, following a public scandal, he left the project.

Back in August, Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office cleared President Javier Milei of ethics violations related to the promotion of the LIBRA meme token.