Javier Milei says he merely shared information about LIBRA

Argentina’s president Javier Milei said in a TV interview he did not intend to persuade people to buy the LIBRA memecoin and had merely “shared” information.

Milei: I didn’t promote it, I shared it.

“I acted in good faith and took a hit,”

“Did the State lose money? No. Did Argentinians lose money? Maybe four or five at most. The vast majority of investors are Chinese and American.”

“I shared this the same way I’ve shared hundreds…

— db (@tier10k) February 17, 2025

“I acted in good faith and took a hit,” the politician said.

Over the weekend the token touted by Milei reached a market capitalization of $4.56bn, then plunged 94% within hours. LIBRA’s rally began shortly after the Argentine president posted on X, sharing the project’s website and the coin’s contract address.

Milei deleted his original post. His involvement nonetheless sparked a scandal, accusations of fraud and participation in a pump-and-dump scheme, and even talk of impeachment.

Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Ventures, the firm effectively behind LIBRA, said the coin’s price collapsed because of the politician’s actions. On-chain data, however, indicated that insider selling was the primary driver of the crash.

According to Milei, Davis pitched the memecoin as a vehicle to finance entrepreneurs and ease their access to capital.

The politician rejected claims that 44,000 investors were hurt by LIBRA’s collapse, saying the number did not exceed 5,000. Most were “Chinese and American.” They are “volatility traders” who specialise in this and know what they are doing, he added.

“I didn’t promote it — I just shared it. I did it because I’m a staunch techno-optimist. I’m interested in any initiative that improves financing for entrepreneurs in technology. I made no mistakes because I acted in good faith. But when I look at the political consequences, I realise I have something to learn,” Milei said.

Even so, on Monday he reposted on X a guide on how to buy LIBRA tokens.

At the time of writing the coin’s market capitalization is $336.3m, down roughly 11% over the past 24 hours (DEX Screener).

Reaction across the memecoin segment

The co-founder of DEX Jupiter and Meteora, known as meow, again insisted amid the LIBRA scandal that neither team engaged in insider activity.

Hi, I’m meow from Jupiter, and I also cofounded Meteora.

Firstly, I’d like to reiterate my confidence that no one at Jupiter or Meteora committed any insider trading or financial wrongdoing, or received any tokens inappropriately.

Secondly, we are hiring an independent 3rd…

— meow (?, ?) (@weremeow) February 18, 2025

He added that lawyers from Fenwick & West would conduct an independent investigation and that Meteora CEO Ben Chow would step down.

Chow had earlier said that neither he nor the team ever received tokens or insider information about LIBRA.

There have been questions regarding Meteora and my involvement in $LIBRA, so I want to explain our role and share why we work with 3rd parties.

Meteora and I personally, have never received or managed any tokens on the side, do not receive knowledge or get involved with any…

— benchow.sol (@hellochow) February 17, 2025

“As for LIBRA, although we learned of the opportunity a few weeks ago from Hayden [Davis], we did not participate in the project at all, except to provide IT support. Neither I nor the Meteora team compromised the launch by leaking information. We did not buy, receive or manage any tokens,” Chow wrote.

He admitted recommending Davis and Kelsier Ventures to several projects as token developers, including MELANIA.

Meanwhile, news outlet SolanaFloor published a video of an alleged conversation between DefiTuna founder Dhirk and Chow.

? BREAKING: SolanaFloor has obtained exclusive video evidence exposing a $200M+ memecoin extraction scheme tied to @KelsierVentures , @MeteoraAG and @WEAREM3M3_ .

The footage, featuring DeFi Tuna Founder @CavemanDhirk and Ben Chow, lends further credibility to allegations of… pic.twitter.com/rjPLBgKCjG

— SolanaFloor (@SolanaFloor) February 17, 2025

Dhirk appeared to describe abuses Davis and Kelsier allegedly committed when launching memecoins, citing first-hand knowledge. In the exchange, Chow denied wrongdoing by himself or Meteora but was visibly shaken by the information. He admitted he had “messed up” and would “have to go”.

It’s all unravelling so quickly. In the past hour we found out that Jupiter owner Meow is the real owner of Meteora. Ben lied about having no involvement with Libra and other Kelsier launches and was fired from Meteora. Gotta imagine Solana and its execs knew this the whole time. pic.twitter.com/n5F8IC5H3W

— Beanie (@beaniemaxi) February 18, 2025

“Everything is somehow unravelling quickly. In the past hour we learned that the founder of Jupiter is the real owner of Meteora. Ben lied about having no involvement with LIBRA and other launches. And was fired. It appears that Solana and its executives knew about all this,” commented the influencer known as Beanie.

The co-founder of the “memecoin factory” Pump.fun, known as alon, voiced disgust at the unfolding LIBRA saga.

I’m disgusted by the events that transpired over the past days surrounding $LIBRA. The people behind this project made substantial personal gains at the expense of many users, the ecosystem, and even an entire country.

I hope the people responsible get what they deserve.

I’m…

— alon (@a1lon9) February 17, 2025

“The people behind this project made substantial personal gains at the expense of many users, the ecosystem and even an entire country. I hope the people responsible get what they deserve,” he wrote.

Alon noted that the very involvement in LIBRA of intermediaries such as a “token development team” and market makers is absurd and signals a potential scam. Launching memecoins should be so “stupidly simple” that anyone can do it, he stressed.

Pump.fun’s co-founder disagreed with talk of “the end of memecoins”. Despite fatigue with such incidents, demand for permissionless asset creation and speculation on blockchain will not vanish, he said.

In his view, the segment needs a range of user-protection measures, including:

• education on ethical and safe coin creation;
• more user-friendly trader onboarding;
• interface-level safeguards.

Potential industry fallout

Beanie suggested the unfolding story could be a “black swan” for the industry, triggering “serious contagion”.

I called all of this a potential Black Swan earlier. There’s some serious contagion starting to happen. Wouldn’t surprise me to see crypto sell off big. Especially with Solana unlocking 2% of the supply in a few days. Worst potential timing ever. Would he nice if it could delay.

— Beanie (@beaniemaxi) February 18, 2025

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see a big crypto sell-off. Especially given that Solana will unlock 2% of supply in a few days. The worst possible timing. It would be nice if it could be delayed,” the expert said.

LIBRA’s collapse could have long-term negative consequences for the industry, Redstone COO Marcin Kazmerchak confirmed in an interview with The Block.

“There are hundreds of teams devoting resources to building unique projects with real applications, yet their work is overshadowed by these short-term, fraudulent schemes. Research shows that every marginal dollar spent on gambling is capital diverted from long-term investment,” he explained.

The collapse of yet another large memecoin only reinforces regulators and users in the belief that crypto is little more than high-stakes gambling, Kazmerchak added.

Even so, he allowed that the industry could benefit: people tired of constant rug-pull schemes may shift attention to more fundamental work in areas such as DeFi or SocialFi, the expert noted.

“In fact I see memecoins as a stress test for the infrastructure we are building,” he concluded.

Ilya Pavelyev, founding partner at Arete Capital, believes speculative activity in tokens is one reason the anticipated altseason has turned into a “mirage”. Liquidity has been trapped in spot bitcoin ETFs, and the barrier to minting coins has fallen, he explained.

“Now insiders have the advantage, and liquidity is being extracted through low-key methods such as closed airdrops and unlocked token issuance,” Pavelyev explained.

Industry experts have discussed how to tackle insider activity in memecoins but have not reached consensus on effective methods.