Tue Feb 18 19:22:47 UTC 2025: ## Argentine President Faces Impeachment Calls After Cryptocurrency Endorsement Leads to Billions in Losses
**BUENOS AIRES** – Argentine President Javier Milei is embroiled in a major scandal following the spectacular collapse of a cryptocurrency he publicly endorsed, sparking legal investigations and calls for his impeachment. Milei promoted the $libra meme coin on social media last Friday, claiming it would boost the Argentine economy. This endorsement caused the token’s value to skyrocket from near zero to over $4 before plummeting to less than $0.50 within hours, after Milei deleted his promotional posts.
The rapid collapse resulted in significant losses for an estimated 40,000 investors, with the Observatorio del Derecho a la Ciudad NGO estimating losses exceeding $4 billion. The incident also triggered a 5% drop in Argentina’s main stock index on Monday.
Lawyers have filed fraud complaints against Milei, alleging a “rug pull” – a scheme where promoters artificially inflate a cryptocurrency’s value before abandoning it, leaving investors with worthless assets. One plaintiff, Jonatan Baldiviezo, stated that the president’s actions constitute a criminal offense. A judge has been assigned to investigate the case.
Argentina’s main opposition coalition has announced its intention to pursue impeachment proceedings against Milei, calling his involvement in the $libra affair an “unprecedented scandal.” Milei’s office claims he was unaware of the coin’s inner workings and deleted the post to avoid speculation. Ben Chow, a cofounder of the platform behind $libra, has since resigned, amidst an independent investigation by the law firm Fenwick & West. While the platform denies any wrongdoing, the controversy casts a long shadow over Milei’s presidency and the future of cryptocurrency regulation in Argentina.
First Piper 