Key Takeaways:
Libra’s price surged 120% after Argentina’s President Javier Milei promoted it on X, but collapsed after he deleted the post, fueling scam allegations. Nearly 72.5% of Libra’s $116.5 million trading volume was concentrated on Meteora, raising suspicions that the exchange was involved in market manipulation. Meteora co-founder Ben Chow resigned after a leaked video allegedly linked the platform to a fraudulent scheme with Kelsier Ventures.The Libra (LIBRA) token tarnished the crypto market’s reputation in just a few days and brought Argentina’s president closer to impeachment.
The LIBRA token launched on Feb. 15 with backing from Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who shared a link to the project and its contract on X.
The project team may have aimed to ride the wave of “state” meme coin hype, following the perceived “success” of the Central African Republic Meme (SAC).
After Milei’s post, LIBRA’s price jumped from $0.34 to $0.75 in a matter of hours—a surge of about 120%. But when the post was later deleted from Milei’s page, the token’s price plummeted, sparking speculation that it was a scam.
Source: CoinGeckoThat same day, Milei explained in a follow-up post that he removed the message because he wasn’t aware of the project’s details.
Source: XMeanwhile, LIBRA co-founder Hayden Davis—who also co-founded Kelsier Ventures—has ties to Melania Coin (MELANIA). On Feb. 17, Davis appeared on the YouTube channel voidzilla, where he stated:
“We sniped our own coin to prevent snipers from sniping our own coin.”
$4.4 Billion Withdrawn in Hours
Researchers at The Kobbeissi Letter were among the first to raise concerns about LIBRA. They also saved a copy of Milei’s deleted post and confirmed that his account had not been hacked. The news was real.
Further investigation revealed that LIBRA’s official website was created just an hour before the token’s launch, even though its domain had been registered a year earlier.
On the same day, analysts at Bubblemaps identified nine addresses linked to the LIBRA project. These wallets appeared to have prior knowledge of the launch and sold off their holdings at the peak.
Data from DEXScreener also flagged unusual activity: one wallet purchased LIBRA for around $1 million and later sold its holdings for $7 million, making a $6 million profit. This raised suspicions, as LIBRA was virtually unknown at the time, making such a high-stakes trade extremely risky unless the trader had inside knowledge.
Source: DEXScreenerAt the same time, reports surfaced of traders suffering significant losses from LIBRA trades.
According to Dune, LIBRA traders’ realized losses amounted to $303 million. The data also shows that 99.1% of traders are at a loss.
Source: DuneWhat fueled even more speculation was that nearly all LIBRA tokens were concentrated in a single liquidity pool on Meteora, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana (SOL).
Was Meteora Involved in the Scheme?
As with SAC, major crypto exchanges were slow to list LIBRA. According to CoinGecko, nearly all of the token’s trading volume—about 72.5% or $116.5 million—was concentrated on Meteora.
One of the few centralized exchanges (CEXs) to list LIBRA was MEXC, which handled roughly $3 million in volume, or just 1.8% of the total.
Source: CoinGeckoMeanwhile, GeckoTerminal data showed that despite insiders already cashing out, LIBRA remained among the top three most traded tokens on decentralized exchanges, with a volume of $116.7 million.
For comparison, the SOL/USDC trading pair topped the rankings with $187 million in volume—typically a sign of large-scale withdrawals to DEXs by whales or insiders.
This is common in the meme coin space, where tokens are often launched on Pump.fun and paired with SOL. Traders then use stablecoins (in this case, USDC) to cash out from DEXs.
Source: GeckoTerminalMeteora’s dominance in LIBRA trading raised suspicions in the crypto community, with some questioning whether the exchange and its team were involved in the scheme.
On Feb. 15, the day of the token’s launch, Meteora co-founder Ben Chow addressed the controversy on X, stating that the platform had no connection to LIBRA and emphasizing that Meteora is a “permission-less platform.”
However, this statement did little to quell concerns. The situation grew even murkier when another Solana-based DEX, Jupiter, was dragged into the controversy.
Crypto researcher Finish shared a screenshot of an alleged conversation (its authenticity remains unverified) suggesting that LIBRA was initially planned to launch under the ticker $AFUERA. The screenshot also mentioned Jupiter’s CEO.
On Feb. 16, Jupiter’s team released a statement on X following an internal investigation. They claimed that no employees were involved in the scam or received tokens in advance. However, they acknowledged knowing about LIBRA’s launch two weeks prior—but not about the fraudulent nature of the project:
“A few members of the Jupiter team knew that there would be, at some point, a token project associated with Argentinian President Javier Milei. We learned of this ~2 weeks ago directly from Kelsier Ventures. While we were initially unsure, we then saw credible evidence in the form of public tweets from Milei’s personal account that he was serious.”
Meteora’s reputation suffered another major blow on Feb. 18 when SolanaFloor published a video allegedly proving the platform’s involvement in a fraudulent scheme with Kelsier Ventures.
Just hours after the video surfaced, Jupiter’s founder, known under the pseudonym meow (who is also one of the co-founders of Meteora), announced that Ben Chow had resigned:
“While I am 100% confident about Ben’s character, as a project lead he has also shown a lack of judgment and care about some of the core aspects of the project (given its current size and reputation) over the past couple of months.”
Despite Chow’s leaving, meow insisted that he did not believe Chow was involved in the LIBRA scam:
“Thirdly, I stand by Ben and his statement. I believe him when he says there was no financial inappropriateness in dealing with partners.”
During an interview with Todo Noticias on Feb. 18, Milei revealed that he had met with the creators of the LIBRA. However, he denied that his social media post was meant to promote investment, claiming that he was merely sharing details about a crypto project to support Argentine entrepreneurs.
The Dark Side of Meme Coins
The LIBRA case, fueled by the broader hype around the crypto market—especially meme coins—once again exposes the darker side of the industry. These schemes are becoming increasingly common. These schemes are becoming increasingly common.
Meme coins are almost always in the spotlight, with their names recognizable even to people who don’t actively follow crypto. This has attracted a wave of new traders seeking quick profits, many of whom fail to do proper research and fall into such schemes. It’s also hard to ignore the influence of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose presence has further amplified the meme coin mania.
This is the second major scandal in just a few days. Last week, the Central African Republic Meme found itself at the center of controversy. SAC was launched as a so-called state meme coin with the backing of Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.
However, suspicions surrounding a possible deepfake video of Touadéra, the blocking of SAC’s official page, and concerns over centralization caused the token’s price to collapse by nearly 100%.
Crypto researcher Koryo noted that while meme coins are now a hot topic, they also bring a sense of embarrassment, distracting attention from more meaningful crypto projects.
It’s difficult to say for certain, but meme coins are becoming an increasingly dominant force in the broader crypto market. Meanwhile, projects with real-world applications—such as those in the Real World Assets (RWAs) sector—are being overshadowed as traders prioritize short-term gains over technological advancements.
Crypto researcher Ignas highlighted this trend, noting that speculation is dominating the market while fundamental projects struggle to gain traction.
A Silver Lining?
Despite the controversy, the Meteora response and Ben Chow’s resignation suggest that some efforts toward transparency exist within the crypto space. The market is attempting to hold itself accountable, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi), where questions often arise about responsibility when things go wrong.
Moreover, the crypto community itself plays a key role in exposing suspicious projects, conducting its own investigations when red flags appear. Additionally, in Argentina, opposition lawmakers are now pushing for President Javier Milei’s impeachment, citing his involvement in promoting the LIBRA scam.
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