Argentine President Javier Milei briefly posted on X to promote the token $LIBRA (a project token of Viva la Libertad), causing a FOMO in the market, as it was believed to be a meme coin backed by the president himself. This led to $LIBRA's market cap surging to $4.62 billion within an hour, ranking it among the top 33 cryptocurrencies.
However, Milei later deleted the tweet and clarified that he has no association with the project. Simultaneously, the team behind $LIBRA, KIP Protocol, also stated that $LIBRA has no connection to Milei. This statement caused $LIBRA to plummet 50% within 15 minutes, and the price has since fallen nearly 95% from its peak, leading investors to suspect this may have been a "rug pull" scam.
Solayer Founder: $LIBRA Lost Over 2 Million Dollars
Chaofan Shou, the founder of the Solana staking project Solayer, publicly stated on X that he and Solayer engineer @tonykebot lost over $2 million in $LIBRA. He also posted the list of core members of the $LIBRA team, KIP Protocol (available on their website). He angrily stated:
"Let's see what two hackers and an idle weekend can bring."
Subsequently, Chaofan Shou began doxxing the KIP Protocol team, starting with the personal information, including address and phone number, of the international sales manager Lisa Zhou / Lisa Vion, demonstrating his intent to not let the KIP Protocol team off the hook (the tweet has since been deleted for violating X's rules).
KIP Co-Founder Response: Come to Me, $LIBRA is Not a Rug
Regarding the doxxing by the Solayer team, KIP Protocol co-founder Julian publicly responded:
"Come to me, rather than attacking others. This is not a rug. If this were a rug, we wouldn't have been able to garner so much support when we launched.
Just because you lost money doesn't mean it's a rug."
However, Solayer founder Chaofan Shou did not accept this explanation, directly responding: "$LIBRA is a rug, and I will find each and every one of you."
KIP Co-Founder: We Did Not Profit, The Raised SOL Will Be Used to Support Argentine Businesses
Facing the Rug Pull allegations, KIP Protocol co-founder Julian issued a lengthy statement explaining the original intent behind $LIBRA:
According to the president's tweet a few hours ago, the purpose of Viva la Libertad is to fund small projects and local businesses to promote the Argentine economy, supporting those who want to develop their businesses and contribute to the country's development.
Currently, all funds remain on-chain, and not a single SOL will be misused.
He emphasized that KIP Protocol's involvement was primarily in the allocation of funds, and they were not involved in token manipulation, and added the following points:
- $LIBRA did not have a pre-sale
- Tokens were only sold through a unidirectional liquidity pool
He stated:
All the raised funds will be used transparently and in full accordance with the original plan for the Viva la Libertad project
Additionally, in response to users, he reiterated that the KIP Protocol team "did not profit" from this, and the communication may have been "imprecise in wording", leading to misunderstandings.
I am the CEO of KIP Protocol, and we did not profit from $LIBRA. Yes, the wording of this statement was indeed not precise enough, but given the circumstances, we could only release it in this way.
Animoca: Unaware and Not Involved in $LIBRA
Regarding KIP Protocol's investment background, Animoca Brands also came forward to distance itself from $LIBRA, stating:
Animoca Brands invested in KIP Protocol in February 2024, like many other investors.
However, we (including @AnimocaVentures and @opencampus_xyz) were unaware of and did not participate in the development and issuance of $LIBRA.
The situation remains unresolved, and although KIP Protocol claims "no profit", on-chain data shows the $LIBRA team has already cashed out over $100 million, leading the market to suspect this may have been a carefully planned scam.
Currently, the Solayer team is still tracking the KIP Protocol members and vowing to hold them accountable. As this incident unfolds, the market is once again reminded of the high-risk nature of investing in meme coins.
