The X account of Argentina’s President Javier Milei promoted a Solana meme coin known as LIBRA late Friday. Merchants initially piled in to buy the coin, which surged to a market cap of about $4.5 billion—however amid rising doubts over the legitimacy of the launch and whether or not it was a pump-and-dump rip-off, the value has since plummeted.
LIBRA has plunged by about 89% because it peaked simply hours earlier after it was introduced on X (previously Twitter). Information from crypto analytics platform DexScreener confirmed that LIBRA reached a worth of $4.50 after launching, however has since crashed to simply $0.50. The token has racked up about $1.1 billion in buying and selling quantity in a matter of some hours.
In line with the web site of the Viva La Libertad Undertaking, the goal of the meme coin initiative is to spice up the Argentine economic system by funding small initiatives and native companies.
“This personal venture shall be devoted to encouraging the expansion of the Argentine economic system by funding small Argentine companies and startups,” a message posted to Milei’s account reads (as translated by X). “The world desires to put money into Argentina.”
The episode recalled the shock launch of U.S. President Donald Trump’s TRUMP token in January, simply days earlier than his inauguration. As with that earlier launch, meme coin merchants flocked to purchase into LIBRA because it began to soar—however many began to second-guess whether or not it was a authentic launch, or if the chief’s account had maybe been hijacked.
Trump’s coin was finally legit, and Bloomberg Línea stories that Milei confirmed to the publication that he actually did share the LIBRA token launch, although he emphasised that it is not his meme coin.
Many merchants dumped their holdings whereas on-chain analysts pointed to considerations across the launch. On-chain analytics agency Chainalysis famous a number of potential crimson flags concerning the token launch, together with receiving its first funding of SOL from an immediate swap service, plus a big portion of the availability being managed by a single pockets.
“The handle that created the token and the handle holding a big portion of the LIBRA provide additionally seem like managed by single personal keys, moderately than multi-signature setups which might be extra widespread of established token launches,” Chainalysis wrote.
Bubblemaps, an on-chain information visualization startup, alleged that the group behind LIBRA is cashing out, accelerating its worth decline in latest hours.
“They already made $87M by eradicating USDC and SOL from liquidity swimming pools,” Bubblemaps wrote on X. “LIBRA is down 85% as a result of the devs absorbed $87M of purchase stress into their pockets. $500M extra to go.”
Editor’s word: This story was up to date after publication to incorporate Bloomberg’s affirmation from President Milei and extra present information.
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