Argentine President Javier Miley said he did not promote the $LIBRA cryptocurrency on his X social media account, but only “shared information about it.
” He said this yesterday, January 17, in an interview with the Argentine TV channel TN. Mr. Miley also noted that he acted in good faith and decided to talk about the new cryptocurrency because he is a “fanatical techno-optimist.”
Mr. Miley found himself at the center of a scandal after he wrote a post on X last Friday in which he praised the new $LIBRA token. After that, its capitalization reached $4.56 billion, and then collapsed by 94% in a few hours. Argentina’s fintech regulator has already stated that there may have been a fraudulent scheme in which the creators of the cryptocurrency actively attract investors and then quickly withdraw money, leaving the rest of the participants with devalued tokens. Mr. Miley soon said he was “not aware of the details of the project” and deleted the original post. He did, however, acknowledge meeting Hayden Davis, who is behind the launch of $LIBRA, last October.
On Monday, Argentina’s main stock index, the S&P Merval, fell 5.6%. The opposition has been actively criticizing Mr. Miley for his role in promoting a dubious cryptocurrency and has threatened to impeach him. About 100 lawsuits have already been filed in Argentine courts over the case, and on Monday, federal judge Maria Servini began an investigation into it.
