About 86% of traders in the meme cryptocurrency, which has received support from Argentine President Javier Milei, suffered losses on Friday, according to a report from research firm Nansen.
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In an analysis conducted by the company on the winners and losers in trading this currency known as "Libra", the total losses were estimated at about $251 million, while the profits achieved by successful traders amounted to about $180 million.
According to the report by Nansen’s Nikolaj Sondergaard, the analysis was based on data from more than 15,000 cryptocurrency wallets that showed gains or losses of more than $1,000 each. “The blockchain data clearly shows that there is a group of people who managed to make significant gains at the expense of other investors who entered the market later,” the report explained.
These developments have also raised growing concerns about the future of Solana, the blockchain platform that hosts Libra and many similar cryptocurrencies.
Solana’s flagship token, the Solana blockchain, fell by about 20% between Friday evening and Tuesday’s low. The network’s total value locked—a key measure of investor interest in projects hosted on it—dropped from $12.1 billion to $8.29 billion, according to data from DefiLlama cited by Nansen. The firm suggested that investors may be focusing on speculating on new coin offerings rather than holding onto their assets for the long term.
How did the Libra crisis start?
The events took place on Friday evening when President Javier Milei directed his followers to a website that claimed to be raising money to support small businesses in Argentina through the cryptocurrency.
According to Nansen, as soon as Millie’s first tweet went viral, trading bots known as “Snipers”—software designed to spot opportunities in new cryptocurrencies—began trading the coin, leading to a massive surge in interest. As a result, its market cap quickly rose to $4.5 billion.
But these gains did not last long, as the currency witnessed a sharp collapse shortly after its rise.
In this context, Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Ventures, which helped launch Libra, stated that the currency is nothing more than a “meme coin,” which contradicts the initial perception in which it was presented as a tool to support the Argentine economy, according to the Nansen report.
With fears growing in Argentina that Meli's social media account could have been hacked or that he had fallen victim to a cryptocurrency scam, the president deleted his original post on X about five hours after it was published.
In a later post, Millie wrote: "I was not fully aware of the details of the project, and after reading it I decided to stop promoting it."
But by the time the Argentine president removed his post, the currency had already collapsed 80% from its all-time high, according to the Nansen report.
“What started as a presidential endorsement and a $4.5 billion market cap quickly collapsed as profit-taking took place, retail investors suffered huge losses, and key backers disavowed the project,” Nansen analysts concluded their report. “Blockchain data shows that a handful of wallets left the market with millions of dollars, while most traders were left with huge losses.”
