{"id":23003,"date":"2025-02-28T15:06:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T16:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23003"},"modified":"2025-02-28T16:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T16:42:10","slug":"argentinas-crypto-scandal-swindled-thousands-what-did-javier-milei-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=23003","title":{"rendered":"Argentina\u2019s Crypto Scandal Swindled Thousands. What Did Javier Milei Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new cryptocurrency called $Libra bilked investors out of $250 million. It had been promoted by President Javier Milei.<\/p>\n

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The scandal began with a tweet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world wants to invest in Argentina,\u201d Javier Milei, Argentina\u2019s president, posted at 7:01 p.m. on Valentine\u2019s Day, offering a code to buy a new cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

The digital coin was called $Libra, and it had been created 23 minutes earlier.<\/p>\n

Over the next few hours, thousands of people invested. $Libra\u2019s value skyrocketed.<\/p>\n

Then it swiftly collapsed. The largest stakeholders had sold their coins, leaving almost everyone else with a collective $250 million in losses.<\/p>\n

To cryptocurrency veterans, it was a classic \u201crug-pull.\u201d A celebrity touts a new digital coin, prices soar and then insiders who own most of the coins pull the rug: They sell their stakes for a big profit at the expense of amateur investors who got in later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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To Argentina, it was a national scandal. The president, critics said, had just scammed his constituents. The opposition called for impeachment. Argentine citizens filed a dozen criminal complaints. A federal prosecutor opened an investigation, with Mr. Milei as a target.<\/p>\n

Then Mr. Milei left for Washington. At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, he gave a combative speech ahead of President Trump, the other president who promoted a new cryptocurrency this year that soared<\/a> and then crashed. That coin, $Trump, generated enormous profits for insiders and a cumulative $2 billion in losses<\/a> for more than 800,000 other investors.<\/p>\n

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A new cryptocurrency called $Libra bilked investors out of $250 million. It had been promoted by President Javier Milei.The scandal began with a tweet.\u201cThe world wants to invest in Argentina,\u201d Javier Milei, Argentina\u2019s president, posted at 7:01 p.m. on Valentine\u2019s Day, offering a code to buy a new cryptocurrency.The digital coin was called $Libra, and it had been created 23 minutes earlier.Over the next few hours, thousands of people invested. $Libra\u2019s value skyrocketed.Then it swiftly collapsed. The largest stakeholders had sold their coins, leaving almost everyone else with a collective $250 million in losses.To cryptocurrency veterans, it was a classic \u201crug-pull.\u201d A celebrity touts a new digital coin, prices soar and then insiders who own most of the coins pull the rug: They sell their stakes for a big profit at the expense of amateur investors who got in later.To Argentina, it was a national scandal. The president, critics said, had just scammed his constituents. The opposition called for impeachment. Argentine citizens filed a dozen criminal complaints. A federal prosecutor opened an investigation, with Mr. Milei as a target.Then Mr. Milei left for Washington. At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, he gave a combative speech ahead of President Trump, the other president who promoted a new cryptocurrency this year that soared and then crashed. That coin, $Trump, generated enormous profits for insiders and a cumulative $2 billion in losses for more than 800,000 other investors.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23005,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23003"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23006,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23003\/revisions\/23006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}