#MileiMemeCoinControversy
Milei Stumbles Into Crypto Memecoin Scandal Before US Trip
(Bloomberg) -- Late Friday night, prolific social media user Javier Milei directed followers to a site that purported to raise money for small businesses in Argentina using crypto.
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Half a world away, digital currency entrepreneur Hayden Davis saw the value of the Libra token, a so-called memecoin he helped launch, begin to surge. Its market value flew past $1 billion, $2 billion, all the way over $4 billion.
When it collapsed, as such tokens often do, Milei’s presidency in Argentina was in crisis mode. Investors like Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy suffered steep losses and dubbed the token “the biggest rug pull of all time” — a reference to the crypto lexicon for a scam. Davis himself, in a later post on social media, acknowledged holding some profits despite the declines.
The events are now the subject of an internal government probe. Prominent members of the crypto world are pointing fingers at each other as Milei tries to recover from a political black eye.
“The Libra saga is a travesty,” said Henry Elder at UTXO Management. “It’s a stark illustration that the current crop of crypto leaders lack any moral compass whatsoever.”
Investors in Buenos Aires took stock of the situation by dumping shares in some of the country’s largest local companies. The benchmark S&P Merval Index saw its biggest one-day drop since July, falling some 5.6% on Monday.
