Argentina: Sharp criticism of President Milei after advertising for memecoin
Argentinian President Javier Milei advertised a memecoin on X, which subsequently gained massively in value and collapsed. The criticism is harsh.
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In Argentina, there are calls for the impeachment of President Javier Milei after he promoted a cryptocurrency whose value briefly exploded before collapsing again. The Buenos Aires Herald reports this and adds that the criticism was voiced immediately and across party lines. Many had pointed out that it is illegal for elected officials to promote private companies. Milei himself removed the post on the short message platform X after around five hours and explained that he had familiarized himself with the matter. Those who wanted to take advantage of the situation "to cause damage" were "dirty rats".
A "rug pull" with the help of the president?
As the financial news agency Bloomberg explains, the advertised cryptocurrency called $Libra is once again a so-called memecoin. The total value of the digital coins shot up to more than four billion US dollars within a very short time after Milei's advertisement. The Buenos Aires Herald adds that a total of eight accounts then snapped up the majority of this sum before the price collapsed. This is reminiscent of a so-called "rug pull", a type of scam in which large sums of money are taken from investors immediately after the launch of a cryptocurrency and used to make off with it.
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In Argentina, voices have already been raised suggesting that Milei may have broken the law with its promotion of $Libra. The Buenos Aires Herald quotes a constitutional lawyer who even sees a violation of several criminal laws. Without Milei's contribution to X, no one would have invested in the memecoin in this way. Should Milei have profited financially from the process, he could face up to six years in prison, according to Andrés Gil Dominguez. There have already been calls from the opposition for his impeachment, but there is no majority for this. Milei himself has rejected the criticism and assured that he had no background knowledge when he supported a "well-intentioned" private initiative.
Javier Milei has been Argentinian President since the end of 2023. The process is reminiscent of a memecoin with which US President Donald Trump caused a stir shortly before taking office. Within hours, the value of the $TRUMP had risen to 70 US dollars, only to plummet. According to analyses, a few dozen accounts raked in immense profits, with over 810,000 cryptocurrency wallets totalling realized or previously unrealized losses of 2.2 billion US dollars. Trump's wife later launched her own cryptocurrency, $MELANIA, and put an end to the soaring $TRUMP.
(mho)
