Last night, President Javier Milei gave an interview on the LIBRA scandal, which was ostensibly a live, honest way to clear the air. However, it was prerecorded; his team selected all questions and edited out incriminating responses.
LIBRA briefly recovered last night, but it lost over $100 million in market cap today. Also, the President’s potential misconduct has even caused a run on Argentina’s sovereign bonds.
President Milei Flubs His Chance at LIBRA Recovery
Javier Milei, President of Argentina, has been trying to put his country on the blockchain. However, the debacle over LIBRA is causing a huge fallout for him and his political project.
After originally disavowing ties to the pump-and-dump, he gave an interview yesterday that attempted to rebuild some credibility. Milei’s broadcast and posts caused a brief spike for LIBRA, but it’s all crashing down again.
Essentially, Milei’s pitch was that he was not involved in the LIBRA rug pull and that it remains a legitimate project. However, his interview was depicted as live and honest.
Soon after, clips of the footage began leaking on social media, revealing that it was prerecorded. Moreover, some of interviewer Jonatan Viale’s questions were removed to avoid consequences:
“Of course, obviously I understand, I realize this could bring you a judicial mess,” Viale said after Milei gave a dodgy answer. One of Milei’s advisors, Santiago Caputo, walked in front of the camera and whispered in Milei’s ear, at which point they shifted the conversation topic.
Considering that Milei claimed the LIBRA interview was live, these edits are already a significant scandal. However, further reporting has shown that the issues run deeper.
The Plot Thickens
A team of Milei’s advisors, including his sister Karina, Caputo, and presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni, vetted all the questions in the interview. In other words, the whole procedure was a sham.
The markets have not taken kindly to these revelations. Yesterday, Argentine stock markets fell dramatically after the news that US federal officials may sue Milei over LIBRA. The token itself lost over $100 million in its market cap, but the President’s clear criminal involvement has also tanked Argentinian sovereign bonds.
Members of the crypto community were fully prepared to believe Milei over his LIBRA claims. Prominent leaders like Charles Hoskinson claimed that Milei was misled, hoping that he had nothing to do with the pump-and-dump.
However, the scandal is only growing now. There is building pressure to impeach him, a DEX co-founder has resigned, and the nation’s stocks and bonds are taking a real beating.
The crypto space is increasingly entangled with TradFi in today’s market, and scandals like this could send painful reverberations through Argentina’s regular economy.
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