The President of Argentina and a firm called KIP Protocol have been caught up in the eye of a storm after the creators of a meme coin called LIBRA rug-pulled thousands of investors.
Last Friday, Javier Milei publicly endorsed the meme coin in an X post that has now been deleted where he described the project as a private endeavor that aimed at providing incentives to local businesses to foster economic growth.
He shared a contract address and a URL to a website called Viva La Libertad Project, inspired by his famous political campaign catchphrase.
Shortly after his endorsement, the market cap of the token surged to nearly $4.4 billion as his post was viewed by millions of people who follow him from across the globe.
However, just hours later, the value of the token started to collapse, and pretty soon, most of that money had evaporated as insiders cashed out of their holdings and left thousands of investors holding a worthless bag of meme coins.
Data from the blockchain analytics firm lmk.fun indicated that over 60 traders lost over $500,000 in the process while 24 traders lost more than $1 million as they took long positions in LIBRA, possibly with the expectation that the President’s endorsement would make it a valuable asset down the road.
At the time of writing, the price of LIBRA stands at $0.4483 per coin while its market cap has dived to $117.1 million. Most of the token’s trading volume went through the Solana-based Meteora Launchpad.
This protocol provides liquidity to new assets minted in the Solana blockchain. Trading volumes for LIBRA have subsided to $160 million but still account for 136.2% of the token’s market cap.
KIP Protocol CEO Claims that LIBRA Is Not a Rug Pull
Argentinian law firms and Milei’s political rivals have already targeted the President and have threatened to impeach him and sue him for the damages caused to investors who believed that he had some sort of involvement with the project.
Milei later acknowledged that he was not familiar with the details of the offering and seems to have “washed his hands” off the issues.
The Viva La Libertad Project website is still up. The project is described as a “symbol of this movement and in honor of Javier Milei’s libertarian ideas.”
At the bottom of the website, it says that the project was developed by KIP Network INC. Representatives from the company claim that the token is not a scam despite withdrawing $90 million from the project.
Am putting out a preliminary response to $LIBRA: a longer one will follow:
As per President Milei’s original post a few hours back, Project Libertad was done to boost the Argentine economy by funding small projects and local businesses, supporting those who seek to grow their…
— Julian @ 𝗞𝗜𝗣 ㊋⫸ (@julian_kip) February 15, 2025
In a tweet published on Saturday, the CEO of KIP, Julian Peh, claimed that the funds raised by the project through this public sale will not be moved or used for anything other than the Viva La Libertad Project’s core mission of helping Argentinian businesses.
The meme coin space is full of scams and shady projects whose intentions and value propositions are unclear.
The best crypto presales like BTC Bull Token (BTCBULL) carry the lowest risk of a rug pull as insider concentration is low and the project has a community-centered approach and a robust ethos that delivers value to holders.
BTC Bull Token (BTCBULL) Raises $2M Less Than a Week After Its Launch
The presale event of BTC Bull Token (BTCBULL) is rapidly becoming one of the best ICOs of the year as the project has raised $2 million just 7 days after its launch.
This meme coin has a clear purpose, distribute Bitcoin (BTC) to BTCBULL holders following a milestone-based criteria tied to the performance of BTC.
The first milestone, which consists of Bitcoin reaching $125,000 per coin, would result in an immediate token burn that will be carried out using part of the funds raised through the presale.
Next up, once BTC rises to $150,000, BTCBULL holders will receive an airdrop of Bitcoin tokens based on the number of coins they hold.
At its discounted price of $0.00237, BTCBULL offers significant upside potential to early buyers as the token’s demand will likely increase once it gains traction and gets listed on exchanges.
To buy $BTCBULL, head to the BTC Bull Token website and connect your wallet. You can either swap ETH, USDT, or BNB for this meme coin or use a bank card to complete your purchase.
