Editor | Wu Blockchain
In the early morning of February 15th, Beijing time, Javier Milei, the Argentine president known for his libertarian views, posted on his social media that he would issue the LIBRA token for national financing.
According to GMGN data, a user address with funds from KuCoin: Gr3eiF...RtS4eb spent $900,000 to buy the LIBRA token issued by the Argentine president at an average price of $0.26945, and then sold it all at an average price of $2.9139, making a profit of $8.7 million in just one hour, which is the highest total profit address currently.
However, LIBRA reached a high of $4.6 less than 1 hour after its launch, and then continued to decline. The average buy price of the Top100 holders is $1.6, and they are now facing huge losses.
According to EmberCN's monitoring, the suspected insider traders of the Meme token LIBRA issued by the Argentine president have made at least $21.8 million in profits through LIBRA. The address operated as follows: a few hours before the president's tweet, they withdrew USDC and SOL from Binance, Bybit, Kucoin and other CEXs to prepare funds; they bought in at the first second after the Argentine president's tweet was published; and they sold out in batches after the market had pushed up LIBRA. There are at least 3 addresses with consistent operations.
At noon on February 15th, Beijing time, Argentine President Milei tweeted: A few hours ago, I posted a tweet, as I have done countless times, supporting a private entrepreneurial project that I obviously had no relationship with. At the time, I did not understand the details of the project, and later, after further investigation, I decided not to continue promoting it (so I deleted that tweet).
According to LookOnChain's monitoring, 8 wallets related to the LIBRA team obtained $57.6 million in USDC and 249,671 SOL (about $49.7 million) through adding liquidity, removing liquidity and charging fees, a total of about $107 million in cash-out.
KIP Protocol tweeted that it is the team behind the Argentine president's token, and the Viva la Libertad project aims to help Argentine private enterprises, and the LIBRA token has also achieved some success. To solve unnecessary problems, we want to clarify that this is a private enterprise project, and President Milei was not involved in the development of this project, as he himself mentioned. This is a completely private enterprise project.
KIP Protocol's official Twitter introduction states that it is supported by Animoca Ventures and is the official AI partner of the Animoca-owned Open Campus project. In 2024, KIP Protocol announced the completion of a $5 million private placement, co-led by Animoca Ventures and Tribe Capital, with other investors including GBV Capital, DWF Ventures, and Morningstar Ventures. Its official page shows that the team is mainly Chinese from the National University of Singapore.
CEO Julian Peh's personal LinkedIn shows that he attended Raffles Junior College in Singapore for high school, and from 2000 to 2004 he studied at the National University of Singapore and obtained a bachelor's degree in law.
Animoca Brands tweeted that Animoca Brands invested in KIP Protocol in February 2024 along with many other investors, but Animoca Brands, Animoca Ventures, and Open Campus had no knowledge of and did not participate in the launch and development of the LIBRA token.
Fuzzland co-founder Chaofan Shou tweeted that he and Solayer engineer tonykebot lost more than $2 million on LIBRA, attaching a photo of the core members of the KIP Protocol team behind LIBRA, and wrote "Let's see what two hackers and an idle weekend can bring us". KIP Protocol co-founder Julian responded to Chaofan Shou on social media, saying that LIBRA is not a rug project, and the massive support it has received is enough to prove its legitimacy, "If this was a scam, we wouldn't have gotten the kind of launch support we have now. Just because you lost money doesn't mean this is a rug."
KIP Protocol co-founder Julian issued a preliminary response regarding the LIBRA project, stating that the Viva la Libertad project aims to promote the economic development of Argentina by providing funding for small projects and local businesses, supporting those seeking to expand their businesses and contribute to the country's development. The funds are still on-chain, and no SOL has been transferred. The KIP team is involved in the project, mainly responsible for managing the fund allocation to Argentine companies, not the token side. This token was not pre-sold, and all sales were conducted through a unilateral liquidity pool. The KIP team will formulate an operation plan for the Libertad project based on the original goals, and promises not to use any SOL for purposes other than the project, and all funds will be transparently accounted for, with more details to be provided later.
According to Lookonchain, the user address: HJXRy9...hzQiaz spent 14,214 SOL (worth about $2.85 million) to buy 1.11 million LIBRA, and eventually sold it all for 3,964 SOL (worth about $781,000), losing $2.07 million in 2 hours.
Sonic Labs (Fantom) co-founder Andre Cronje tweeted that in the past we would argue over issues like an external account controlling a function that doesn't affect the asset or a contract being controlled by a multi-sig instead of a time lock. Now presidents and sovereign states are dumping on us in full criminal mode. Crypto is eternal. When asked if he regretted returning to the crypto world, AC responded: This is just the result of wider adoption, and the Meme coin craze does not conflict with my work. Participants in Meme coins are a completely disinterested group in DeFi or even blockchain. So Meme coins haven't taken away any attention, because the participants weren't our user base to begin with. So, let them thrive.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time Argentine President Milei has engaged in similar activities. In 2021, he posted information about the high-yield investment platform CoinX on Instagram, and in June of this year, the Argentine National Securities Commission (CNV) issued a risk warning to the public about CoinX and banned the platform from operating. The victims have now submitted materials to prosecute the Ponzi scheme Javier.
On February 16th, KIP Protocol stated that the token launch and market making were fully handled by KelsierVentures, represented by the project initiator Hayden Davis, and those wallets do not belong to KIP. All matters related to the launch and tokens should be referred to Kelsier, as they are handling this and plan to transfer the tokens to a foundation. All the SOL obtained today will be re-injected into the LP. All market making fees will be transferred to a foundation in Argentina. That foundation will continue to run the program as originally planned.
Kelsier issued a statement saying that Argentine President Javier Milei initially supported and actively promoted the Libra token on social media platforms such as X and Instagram. His colleagues obtained his public support at the time of the launch and assured me that he would continue to support it throughout the launch process. Despite previous commitments, Milei and his team unexpectedly changed their stance, withdrawing their support and deleting all previous social media support. After consulting experts, I recommend reinvesting 100% of the funds I control (up to $100 million) back into the Libra token and burning all purchased supply. Unless a more viable alternative is proposed, I intend to begin implementing this plan within the next 48 hours.
