On February 14, 2025, Argentine President Javier Milei posted a tweet on his official account on platform X (formerly Twitter) promoting a new cryptocurrency called $LIBRA, which is a meme coin launched on the Solana network. This tweet caused the price of the currency to rise from $0.000001 to $5.20 in just 40 minutes. However, just a few hours later, the price collapsed by 85%, leading to estimated losses of $87 million for about 74,000 investors.
This scandal was dubbed "Cryptogate," and it was described by The Economist as "the first major scandal" of Milei's presidency. Investigations indicated that the currency's founder, Hayden Davis, and Milei's advisors, Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Terones, may have been involved in a scam known as a "Rug Pull."
After the scandal, Milei faced calls for legal accountability and more than 100 criminal complaints were filed against him, including allegations of fraud. Milei ordered the Anti-Corruption Office to investigate the case, but some questioned the impartiality of the investigation since the office is under the executive branch.
