President Milei Sparks More Anger with Public Interview Following $LIBRA Dump

Argentine President Javier Milei stirred the hornet’s nest with a recent interview where he attempted to explain his role in the $Libra memecoin debacle

President Milei, an economist, used his official X page to promote information about a memecoin known as $Libra. The memecoin dumped a few hours after launch, wiping out $4 billion in Market Capitalization and costing thousands of traders their capital investment

Speaking to Todo Noticias, an Argentine Television Channel, Milei explained that his actions were not intentional and shared the memecoin in good faith

I didn’t promote it; I shared it. “I acted in good faith and took a hit,” Milei stated

The President struck a raw nerve when he attempted to downplay the impact of the $Libra rug pull. He stated that most victims of the rug pull were not Argentines, and those who invested their money in the memecoin were aware of the risks involved

“Did the State lose money? No. Did Argentinians lose money? Maybe four or five at most. The vast majority of investors are Chinese and American.”

I shared this the same way I’ve shared hundreds of things. My tweet came just three minutes after the coin was created because I’m passionate about these things and found out about it. These are volatility traders who knew what they were doing.” Milei added

Milei’s statement was not well received by the crypto community, which is still recovering from the shock waves of the rug pull. The president’s statement was highly insensitive and worsened an already bad situation

44,000 or 5,000

In his TV interview, Javier Miliel disputed the tally of affected traders who lost money to the $Libra rug pull. The president dismissed the 44,000 figure banded around by the crypto community. He believes the figure was roughly 5,000 traders, although no concrete evidence was presented

The Embattled President also stated that the bulk of the victims were not his compatriots but rather were mostly Chinese and Americans

He maintained his innocence in the scheme and claimed that he was completely unaware of the downsides of such projects

He pledged to up his guards and make himself less accessible to avoid a repeat of such an incident.

Memecoins and Presidents

The $Libra memecoin episode is the third time a president is directly involved with a memecoin this year. The stage was set by Donald Trump, launching his Trump Memecoin a few days before his Inauguration

The President of the Central African Republic promoted an official Memecoin ($CAR ) for his country, which tanked a few hours after its launch

The growing case of heads of state getting actively involved with cryptocurrency started as bullish news for the industry

Recent events have changed those notions, with the crypto community experiencing firsthand how the authority of a sitting president can be exploited to promote rug-pull schemes

At the time of the report, the $LIBRA memecoin is exchanging hands for $0.304, dropping by 10.9%