After the Argentine president issued Meme coins and then denied it, public outrage ensued. Who profited and who was cut?

Author: jk, Odaily Planet Daily

This morning around 6 AM Beijing time, Argentine President Javier Milei posted a tweet on his official X account that shook the market: he announced the launch of the Meme coin Libra and revealed the related smart contract address.

Once the news broke, the market reactions were very diverse, some people thought the Argentine president's account was hacked, while some Meme players rushed into the market (the old players have been sufficiently educated that authenticity doesn't matter). Previous reports indicated that the price of LIBRA briefly surpassed $7.8, with a total market cap reaching $3.5 billion at one point. Soon after, Milei's Instagram account also posted a screenshot of the same tweet, quickly dispelling the theory of hacking (as the likelihood of both Instagram and X accounts being hacked simultaneously is very low), further intensifying the market's attention on Milei's coin launch.

However, the subsequent market trend slapped all investors in the face. Unlike the longer rising cycles of Trump Coin and Melania Coin, Libra followed the classic route of cutting leeks. After rising above $4, Libra began to plummet like a waterfall: it fell from $4 to around $2, then encountered a brief plateau around $1, finally dropping to about $0.16 now. It can be said that Libra is now completely done for.

Subsequently, the president himself deleted that tweet and claimed he "didn't know much about the project."

The trend of Libra, source: GeckoTerminal

What is Libra for?

According to President Milei's tweet a few hours ago, the project associated with Libra (Project Viva La Libertad) mainly aims to promote the Argentine economy by funding small projects and local businesses, supporting those who seek to develop enterprises and contribute to the country's development. The project's website also indicates that any private enterprise in Argentina can apply for investment by filling out a form.

At the bottom of the website, a small line states that the project is a private initiative, developed by Kip Protocol. Later, Kip Protocol also emphasized that the LIBRA token is part of the "Viva la Libertad" project, which is entirely operated by private enterprises, and that Argentine President Milei was not involved in its development.

Who Profited?

While investors were cut, it inevitably means that someone profited. Who are the ones profiting? Data points to the team behind it and early speculators. According to blockchain analysis platform LookOnChain, eight wallets associated with the LIBRA team have cumulatively cashed out 57.6 million USDC and 249,671 SOL (approximately $49.7 million) through liquidity addition, liquidity removal, and transaction fee collection, totaling $107 million.

As for early speculators and insider trading, on-chain data analyst Yu Jin monitored that insiders of LIBRA profited at least $20.18 million. This address operated in the hours before the tweet was released, withdrawing USDC and SOL from CEXs like Binance, Bybit, and Kucoin to prepare funds; they bought in the first second after the Argentine president's tweet was posted; and sold off in batches after the market pushed LIBRA up. Among them, at least three addresses operated in unison.

Thus, the anger of investors is currently mostly directed at Kip Protocol; it's no wonder they posted on the X platform stating, "Libra is a success."

Tweet, source: Kip Protocol X

It is still unclear whether the team behind Libra only refers to Kip Protocol. Meanwhile, some netizens have dug up that Kip Protocol may also have certain connections with Animoca, but Animoca immediately clarified that it has no relation to the issuance of Libra tokens.

At the same time, some community members pointed out that a significant number of investors rushed in initially because the token address for Libra could be searched on Moonshot. However, this was actually a misunderstanding; unlike Trump, which was officially certified and could be searched and purchased, the LIBRA token was not officially certified by the Moonshot platform but was displayed using the platform's latest "token registration feature." The Moonshot platform allows users to search for projects via contract addresses but does not verify them, and it has a risk warning on the page. If one only searches for the name Libra, it cannot be found.

Additionally, against the backdrop of severe market fluctuations, Solayer team member Chaofan Shou posted on the X platform that he and team engineer @tonykebot lost over $2 million in LIBRA trading, along with a list of core members of KIP Protocol, hinting that action might be taken. Shou also captioned: "Let's see what two hackers and a free weekend can bring us."