Argentina’s $4.6 Billion Crypto Scandal | Largest-Ever Crypto Theft

On February 14, Milei took to X to promote a little-known token called LIBRA, claiming it would boost Argentina’s economy by funding small businesses. His post linked to a website featuring his signature slogan, “long live freedom,” and assured his 3.8 million followers that “the world wants to invest in Argentina.” Thousands did. LIBRA skyrocketed from near zero to almost $5—before crashing to under $1 within hours.

Milei quickly deleted the post, claiming he was unaware of the project’s details, but the damage was done. Lawyers in Argentina, led by Milei’s political opponent Claudio Lozano, filed more than 100 fraud complaints against the president, and an Argentine judge opened up an investigation.

Crypto entrepreneur Hayden Davis admitted to participating in the launch of LIBRA—as well as MELANIA, a memecoin tied to the First Lady that briefly hit a $2 billion market cap before crashing. In an interview with YouTube scam-buster Coffeezilla (Stephen Findeisen), Davis revealed he controlled about $100 million made on LIBRA and detailed a scheme known as sniping—a practice where insiders or bots swiftly buy up newly launched tokens at ultra-low prices before the general public can react, driving up demand and price, only to sell at a massive profit. In regulated markets, this would be considered illegal front-running. He also named two organizers of Tech Forum, a Latin American tech conference, as fellow participants in the launch.

As the backlash mounted, Davis attempted damage control. “I want to make it unequivocally clear that I have not, nor will I, take any of these funds for my personal benefit,” he wrote in a statement on X. In a separate interview with Barstool Sports, he described the fiasco as an "experiment that happened to go very wrong." He insisted Milei wasn’t corrupt—just surrounded by people who might be. Meanwhile, Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy claimed Davis personally refunded him $5 million lost in the LIBRA fiasco.

The numbers paint a brutal picture: 86% of traders who bought into LIBRA lost money, with total losses reaching $251 million, according to blockchain analytics firm Nansen. A lucky few pocketed $180 million.

Ben Chow, cofounder of the decentralized exchange Meteora, which facilitated the launches of LIBRA, MELANIA, and TRUMP, resigned, according to a February 18 post from his pseudonymous cofounder Meow.