After Argentina's currency was slashed by 1 billion, what内幕 did the community uncover within 36 hours?
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
After Argentina's currency was slashed by 1 billion, what内幕 did the community uncover within 36 hours?
It has a rather absurd feel, like "the King of Chu favoring slim waists."
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: shushu
Remember when Solayer developer Chaofan Shou said he and the Solayer engineers lost over $2 million on LIBRA? And that phrase, "Let's see what two hackers and a free weekend can bring us."
The weekend has just ended, and the LIBRA project has indeed been exposed for numerous scandals. Based on publicly available information, BlockBeats has compiled a list of parties involved in the LIBRA launch and their statements, attempting to piece together the entire farce.
Currently, the main parties surrounding LIBRA include President Milei, project team KIP Protocol, market maker Kelsier Ventures and its founder Hayden Davis, insiders close to the Argentine government, and multiple projects including Jupiter.
Team infighting erupts, multiple parties expose themselves
In the early hours of February 16, KIP Protocol posted on X stating that the release and market making of the LIBRA token were entirely handled by Kelsier Ventures and its founder Hayden Davis, and that no wallets related to the project belong to KIP or co-founder Julian. KIP only joined afterward at invitation to manage and oversee the selection of funded technical projects. KIP publicly acknowledged its role because the project was listed on the official website and they recognized the plan’s potential.
At 8 a.m. on February 16, Hayden Davis released a three-minute clarification video and accompanying announcement. The key points from his video were:
1. Hayden Davis confirmed he is an advisor to Argentine President Javier Milei;
2. All recoverable funds—including fees, profits, liquidity, and anything else—will be injected into Libra trading pairs within the next 24 to 48 hours;
3. He exposed projects such as Photon, Bullex, Meteora, Jupiter, and Moonshot for profiting from LIBRA;
A document announcement was also attached below the video, containing the following key information:
1. Hayden Davis' responsibility is to ensure LIBRA's liquidity while retaining control over all associated fees and reserves;
2. Javier Milei's team had assured Hayden Davis of continuous support during the LIBRA launch, but Milei deleted his Twitter without prior notice to the team;
3. Julian Peh, founder of KIP Network and primary sponsor of the Libra Token, committed no wrongdoing. Davis speculated that Milei's team attempted to shift blame onto Julian to evade their own responsibility;
An hour later, the official Argentine presidential office account issued a statement explaining the background of the LIBRA project, stating that on October 19, 2024, Argentine President Javier Milei met with representatives of KIP Protocol in Argentina. During this meeting, KIP introduced their plan to develop a project called "Viva la Libertad," aiming to use blockchain technology to support financing for private enterprises in Argentina.
On January 30, 2025, the president met with Hayden Mark Davis at the presidential palace. According to KIP Protocol representatives, Mr. Davis would provide technical infrastructure for the project. It was stated that Hayden Davis has no relationship with the Argentine government and was introduced solely by KIP Protocol as one of the project’s partners.
The above represents the official responses from the main public participants in the LIBRA project. During this process, Solayer developer Chaofan Shou, who suffered losses, initially claimed that the market maker/creator of the LIBRA token was directly linked to Arunkumar Sugadevan and another Indian serial rug-pull scammer, questioning whether Kelsier Ventures outsourced the token launch to an Indian company. Through timeline analysis tracking fund flows, it was discovered that the creator of the LIBRA token was also an insider behind the MELANIA and ENRON tokens, a developer of the OG.FUN project, and had already laundered over $15 million.
He later deleted that post, clarifying that Arunkumar Sugadevan was not involved with LIBRA, merely sharing the same market maker. However, he created an infographic consolidating his investigation, claiming that the LIBRA issuance and market-making team manipulated multiple meme coins.
Jupiter, Meteora, others plunged into public relations crisis
In Hayden Davis’s video, the most explosive revelation was that projects like Photon, Bullex, Meteora, Jupiter, and Moonshot were involved in the LIBRA launch and profited handsomely.
Photon and Bullex are popular meme trading platforms in the English-speaking community, while Meteora, Jupiter, and Moonshot are Solana meme coin one-stop service providers that rose to fame after the TRUMP coin. Many investors rushed into LIBRA because they could find contract details on Moonshot.
In the comment section of President Milei’s tweet on January 31 announcing his meeting with Hayden Davis, Meteora’s founder commented “changing the face of the world,” which the community took as evidence that Meteora was involved in internal planning of LIBRA. As a result, Meteora founder Ben issued a clarification statement even before Hayden Davis released his video, stating that the LIBRA team used Meteora’s permissionless platform, but Meteora never controlled any tokens nor had direct contact with Milei.
Jupiter and its team members also issued clarifications, stating that several Jupiter team members learned about a potential future token project linked to the Argentine president directly from Kelsier Ventures around two weeks ago. "No member of the Jupiter team received LIBRA tokens or any related compensation. Jupiter founder Meow did not know the contract address or exact launch time, nor did he participate in any operations. At the time, he was in Tokyo and asleep during the token launch."
In Jupiter’s statement, it was mentioned that Meteora founder Ben learned the contract address minutes before launch for verification purposes, but only shared it with the Jupiter team after the information became public.
After Davis’s video went viral, multiple projects he mentioned issued clarification statements. Almost all stated they would provide more detailed information to the community in the future, with Hayden Davis also saying he would continue releasing videos disclosing further details. Yet the token price remains low—after two days of fallout, LIBRA’s market cap stands at just $300 million.
Insider爆料: A manipulated president
The most explosive LIBRA-related revelation came in the early hours of February 16, when community developer @DiogenesCasares published an article titled “Bribery, Insiders, and a Manipulated President | The Truth Behind $LIBRA,” claiming to be an insider in the LIBRA launch plan. He said he started receiving information a week earlier about rumors circulating in the market regarding an upcoming meme coin tied to Milei, originating from traders and industry insiders with reliable sources.
In the article, he wrote that he contacted several key figures in the Argentine crypto community, primarily executives from major crypto exchanges and platforms. All of them said they had never heard of the project. One mentioned that an idea led by U.S. investors had been proposed, including certain individuals like the JUP CEO wanting to create a token named $afuera, but the plan never materialized.
He then learned that a close aide of Milei accepted a $5 million bribe to push this token project to the president. This does not mean Milei himself took the bribe, but rather that his aide accepted funds to get Milei to endorse the token.
The author claimed the project’s幕后team closely resembled the team behind Melania Trump’s previously launched token. On-chain evidence shows many wallets that early-purchased $LIBRA were linked to the Melania token. He also stated that the Meteora team was connected to the Melania token and played a significant role in LIBRA, or at least knew about the token plan.
Moreover, many key figures in the crypto industry and Solana ecosystem had advance knowledge of LIBRA and obtained the token address well before ordinary buyers (who typically rely only on public on-chain data). Additionally, $20 million was transferred across multiple wallets—these wallets first received LIBRA from developers and then quickly dumped for profit.
The author speculated that a group of foreign VCs, traders, intermediaries, and crypto KOLs tried to pitch this token to the Argentine government, and since the Milei administration was open to new ideas, it became their target—a surreal situation reminiscent of the idiom “When the king favors slim waists, the courtiers starve themselves.”
In supplementary information, the author emphasized that Milei himself did not directly participate; those involved were more likely members of his government team.
This aligns with Milei’s own statement calling for Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office to investigate whether government officials, including himself, engaged in misconduct. He also established a special investigative unit (UTI) composed of regulators from fields related to crypto assets, financial activities, and money laundering. The group will consolidate information and urgently investigate the issuance of the cryptocurrency LIBRA and all involved companies and individuals. All evidence gathered will be handed over to judicial authorities to determine whether KIP Protocol-related entities or individuals have committed crimes.
The collapse of a meme conspiracy syndicate?
Some in the community are reflecting on why they lost money, while others are actively seeking redress. Developer Farokh (@farokh) expressed hope that LIBRA project lead Hayden Davis would expose the list of KOLs who received marketing payments in LIBRA tokens, and called on crypto media and capable individuals to jointly investigate the matter.
Previously, Dave Portnoy said in a Space that he received 6 million LIBRA tokens for marketing, knew the token’s contract in advance, and bought in early via small wallets. The KIP team had also discussed helping him launch his own token.
Crypto KOL Beanie (@beaniemaxi) sarcastically noted that when even Dave Portnoy starts playing the role of a righteous whistleblower, you can imagine how deep this scandal runs and how dirty the trenches really are. (Author’s note: Dave Portnoy previously launched the parody meme coin JAILSTOOL. CZ once retweeted Dave Portnoy’s post: “To all the meme coin players crying now: We all know the rules of the game. Everyone’s here to make money. Nobody’s deceiving anyone. If you’re buying and selling trash coins, you should be prepared to lose your entire investment. That’s the risk.”)
Beanie, in his investigation into Kelsier Ventures, stated that meme coin KOL champ is a partner in the Kelsier Ventures team.
Crypto KOL NDF is both a member of Kelsier Ventures and part of the Fantom Troupe, explaining how early LIBRA information leaked into inner circles. It’s akin to a Wall Street M&A investment banker secretly working as a day trader at the same company—clearly a conflict of interest.
Beanie described Kelsier Ventures as essentially a family-run criminal enterprise. Besides CEO Hayden Davis, his father Tom Davis serves as chairman and his brother Gideon Davis as COO. Currently, Gideon has cleared his bio on X and deleted his Instagram.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
BlockBeats
