- A total of $251 million was lost by 86% of traders in the LIBRA memecoin incident, while winners collected $180 million in profits.
- The token reached a $4.5 billion market cap after endorsement from Argentina‘s President Milei before crashing 90%.
- Over 40,000 crypto addresses participated in the trading frenzy, with 70% of wallets recording losses.
- Two wallets made $5.4 million in profits within 43 minutes of trading on February 14.
- The incident has sparked political controversy in Argentina, with opposition calling for impeachment proceedings.
The LIBRA memecoin catastrophe has emerged as one of the most significant cryptocurrency market failures of 2024, resulting in a net loss of $71 million in investor wealth according to data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen.
On-chain analysis reveals the devastating scope of the incident, which began when the token launched on Meteora, a Solana-based decentralized exchange. The token’s meteoric rise was triggered by President Javier Milei’s social media endorsement, which claimed the project would support Argentine economic growth and small business development.
The market reaction was swift and severe. From a peak market capitalization exceeding $4.5 billion, LIBRA’s value plummeted by 90% after large-scale token dumps by insider wallets. The number of unique holders dropped from 50,000 to 35,770 between February 14 and February 18.
“70% of wallets trading $LIBRA from February 16th to 18th ended with realized losses as many likely attempted to profit off of the additional retweet from Javier Milei,” noted Nansen’s report shared with CoinDesk.
The incident mirrors previous political figure-associated token failures, such as the 2022 Let’s Go Brandon token crash and various Trump-themed cryptocurrency collapses. These events highlight the heightened risks of politically-affiliated digital assets in the cryptocurrency market.
The fallout has extended beyond financial losses. President Milei’s subsequent deletion of his endorsement and admission of being “not aware of the details of the project” has triggered calls for impeachment from opposition leaders, who view the incident as damaging to Argentina’s international reputation.
✅ Follow BITNEWSBOT on Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X.com, and Google News for instant updates.
Previous Articles:
- TETHER-BACKED FINTECH MANSA SECURES $10M IN FUNDING FOR STABLECOIN PAYMENTS EXPANSION
- XRP Surges 7.5% as SEC Reviews ETF Applications, Brazil Approves First Spot XRP Fund
- Google Cloud Partners with MANTRA to Launch Real-World Asset Accelerator Program
- Lightning Labs CTO: Recent Node Draining Issue Linked to Compromised Machine, Not Network Bug
- Cardano implements groundbreaking community governance model in 2025 fork
