# $LIBRA

$Libra (stylized in all uppercase) is a cryptocurrency meme coin created on 14 February 2025. It achieved notoriety due to its promotion by Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, before it suffered a massive price drop leading to the scandal dubbed cryptogate. The companies involved with the cryptocurrency are KIP Protocol, led by Singaporean Julian Peh, and Kelsier Ventures, owned American businessman Hayden Mark Davis.
A few minutes after its creation, the value of the cryptocurrency increased from $0.000001 to $5.20, and then crashed immediately and losing almost all its value. Three hours later, the nine founding accounts of the cryptocurrency had gained approximately USD 286 million at the expense of approximately 74,000 people who invested, in what some have called a rug pull scam.
On 15 February, Davis, also known as Kelsier, the owner of Kelsier Ventures, made a public appearance on his Twitter account. He introduced himself as a "part" of the $LIBRA project and an "advisor" to Milei, blaming him as well as the president's team for "withdrawing their support" from the project "despite prior commitments". He also pledged to gather as many dollars as possible to "reinject" into $LIBRA. Other individuals linked to $LIBRA include Argentinians Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Terrones Godoy, who have been organizing the Tech Forum in Argentina since 2024.

## Key events

A week before $LIBRA's launch, Diógenes Casares, co-founder of decentralized finance company Stream Finance, wrote a report mentioning rumors that "a meme coin around Milei [was] being created," including the involvement of bribes, though he initially thought they were not real. American analyst Nick O'Neill stated that "Javier Milei and his team worked for weeks on launching a token" and claimed "with 100% certainty" that payments were involved in the development and launch of $LIBRA.
On 14 February 2025, at 18:58 Argentina time, the Panamanian company KIP Protocol created the "$LIBRA" token libra (transl. liberty) without publicizing the event, as part of a project called "Viva La Libertad" (transl. Long Live Freedom). Three minutes later, Argentina's President Javier Milei published on his official Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts, promoting the $LIBRA$ cryptocurrency on the Solana platform. His post included the contract address for purchasing the newly launched token and was pinned to his profile. Government officials such as Martín Menem and José Luis Espert also showed support through posts on their profiles. Immediately after Milei's post, $LIBRA's value surged from $0.000001 to $5.20 in 40 minutes. The founders of $LIBRA held 70% of the total supply, and once the price reached a certain level, they abruptly sold their holdings, crashing the price by 85%. Three hours later, the nine founding accounts had made approximately $87 million at the expense of an estimated 74,000 investors. The event has been described as being a type of scam commonly known as a "rug pull".
The company KIP Protocol was registered in Panama and relied on the technological infrastructure services of Kelsier, owned by Hayden Mark Davis. According to the government, Milei met the executives of KIP Protocol, who introduced him to the company's project called Viva la Libertad, which aimed to fund private ventures in Argentina using blockchain technology.
On 15 February, at 00:38 (7 hours after his promotional post), Milei declared that he had promoted the cryptocurrency without being fully informed of the details of the project and after actually delving into it, he decided to delete his post. At the same time, KIP Protocol issued a statement distancing themselves from the situation, clarifying that they only provided technical infrastructure and that Kelsier were the ones responsible for the project and its execution. Hayden Davis, the owner of Kelsier, published a statement declaring that he had been an advisor to the Argentine government. He mentioned that government members had assured him they would support the project and described the government's decision to delete the supportive post as abrupt, asserting that Libra investors felt betrayed by this turn of events.
Following this event, deputies of Union for the Homeland announced their intention to initiate impeachment proceedings and a criminal complaint was filed accusing Milei of violating the duties of a public official. In response, the government requested that the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which is part of the Executive Branch, determine whether any improper conduct occurred on the part of the government in relation to the event. Additionally, a new body called the "Unit for Investigation Tasks" was created within the Presidency to investigate the entire $LIBRA project.
On 17 February 2025, an Argentine law firm operating in the United States filed a complaint against Milei and other responsible parties with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI.