The LIBRA memecoin scandal that rocked Argentina over the weekend destroyed tens of millions of {dollars} in investor wealth, based on analysis by Nansen.
On-chain knowledge tracked by Nansen present 86% of merchants misplaced a complete of $251 million, whereas the winners secured simply $180 million in earnings. In different phrases, it was a “net-negative wealth-generating” occasion that probably sucked out liquidity from the market.
The episode is a stark reminder that tokens related to political figures could be simply as dangerous as random memecoins and celeb cryptocurrencies in making or breaking fortunes inside minutes.
LIBRA debuted on Meteora, a Solana-based decentralized trade, final Friday and shortly surged to a market cap of over $4.5 billion after Argentina’s President Javier Milei mentioned on X that the challenge backing the coin would “deal with encouraging the expansion of the Argentine economic system, funding small companies, and Argentina ventures.”
Over 40,000 crypto addresses piled into the token, fueling a surge in worth. The bullish pleasure, nevertheless, was short-lived. The balloon popped as insiders offloaded large numbers of tokens, tanking the market cap by 90%.
Learn extra: Will Argentinian President Milei’s Crypto ‘Fiasco’ Be a Deathblow for Memecoin Craze?
Milei ultimately deleted his X put up, saying he was “not conscious of the small print of the challenge” and, now knowledgeable, has chosen to not proceed selling it. By then, although, the harm was achieved.
The opposition known as the entire affair a global embarrassment and threatened to question Milei.
“70% of wallets buying and selling $LIBRA from February sixteenth to 18th ended with realized losses as many possible tried to revenue off of the extra retweet from Javier Milei,” Nansen mentioned in a report shared with CoinDesk.
The variety of distinctive holds of the token fell to 35,770 on Feb. 18 from over 50,000 on Feb. 14. In the meantime, two wallets that purchased the token at 22:01 UTC and bought by 22:44 UTC on Feb. 14 made simply over $5.4 million in whole revenue, the report famous.
