Argentine President Javier Milei is facing calls for impeachment after promoting a cryptocurrency that saw its market value soar before collapsing in a matter of hours.
Article 53 allows for the impeachment of the president and other officials of the highest ranks for alleged “misconduct or crimes committed in the fulfillment of their duties; or for ordinary crimes.” It takes a two-thirds majority vote in the lower house to proceed with the charges.
The controversy erupted on Feb. 14, when Milei directed his 3.8 million followers on X to a site for LIBRA, a cryptocurrency project purportedly dedicated to raising funds for small businesses in Argentina.
“This private project will be dedicated to encouraging the growth of the Argentine economy,” he wrote in the now-deleted post. “The world wants to invest in Argentina.”
The token’s price surged to nearly $5 per token, pushing its total market value beyond $4 billion. Just five hours later, Milei deleted the message and distanced himself from the initiative.
The crash had ripple effects across the broader market of so-called meme coins. TRUMP, a token launched in January by U.S. President Donald Trump—fueled by both internet memes and the popularity of his Make American Great Again movement—plunged by $500 million in market value within 30 minutes of LIBRA’s collapse, according to market data.
Criticism has mounted against both Milei and Hayden Davis, a digital currency entrepreneur and a central figure behind the LIBRA project, with accusations that the launch was a “rug pull” scheme, a practice in which developers abandon a project after profiting from early investors, leaving others with worthless tokens.
In response, Casa Rosada, Argentina’s presidential palace, issued a lengthy statement on Feb. 15 stating that Milei was not involved in developing the cryptocurrency and that he deleted the initial promotional post solely to avoid speculation and further attention.
Davis, meanwhile, defended his actions, stating that his team “sniped” LIBRA at launch to deter external traders from doing the same.
Sniping is crypto slang for using automated bots or tools to rapidly buy and sell large portions of a newly launched token for profit. These bots detect favorable conditions and execute trades within milliseconds, often outpacing regular investors.
“I’m not saying [sniping] should always happen, but I’m saying a lot of times it’s to protect. And if there’s enough volume, take some off so that people can have a chance to pump the chart back up.”
Addressing accusations of insider trading, Davis argued that insider knowledge has been common in meme coin launches.
“People that get mad are the people that aren’t insiders,” he said. “This is what happens.”
