#MileiMemeCoinControversy #GeopoliticalImpactOnBTC

An Argentine judge was assigned on Monday to investigate President Javier Milei's role in promoting a cryptocurrency that crashed, the latest shockwave from a scandal that has threatened to slow the libertarian leader's momentum.

Milei late on Friday recommended the little-known crypto coin $LIBRA in a posting on X, kicking off a brief rally. He later deleted the posting and denied having any link to the cryptocurrency, which soon plunged.

The country's fintech chamber said the case could amount to a "rug pull," a scam in which a coin's backers lure multiple investors, sending the cryptocurrency's value soaring, then quickly withdraw their funds, leaving investors with worthless tokens.

Opposition lawmakers have said that Milei, whose tough austerity program has won plaudits from investors and made progress in taming rampant inflation, could face an impeachment trial over his actions.

Observatorio del Derecho a la Ciudad, a local NGO, filed a lawsuit accusing Milei and other government officials of illicit association, fraud and breach of their duties as public officials.

"We denounce Milei as being part of an illicit association that organized a scam with the $LIBRA cryptocurrency that simultaneously affected more than 40,000 people with a loss of more than $4 billion," it said on its website.