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Argentine libertarian president Javier Miley was hit by a scandal over the promotion of Memocoin, which increased value before it collapsed, sparking a call for each and a lawsuit.
Milei promoted a cryptocurrency called $Libra on X on Friday night. Its value surged beyond $4 before falling below 50 cents.
Buyers accused the Coin creator of being a possible “rag pull” scheme. There, the first cryptocurrency investors invited others to inflate prices before they quickly withdraw funds.
Political opponents have filed dozens of lawsuits accusing Milei of breaching ethics, but the main left-wing Peronist opposition block said it would launch the ammo each proceeding, saying “crypto fraud He accused her of participating in the program.
In a television interview Monday, Mairay said the scandal “slapped in the face” that he described as the biggest crisis for his administration since analyst took office in December 2023.
“I’m a techno optimist. And this was proposed to me as a way to fund an Argentine project,” he said. “It’s true that I slapped them in the face when I tried to help these Argentina.”
Milei’s office said the president met twice with representatives of companies involved in creating Coin, but he was “not involved at any point” in its development.
The president added that he asked the administrative officer’s Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate whether there was any fraud by himself or by government actors.
“The most interesting lesson is that. . You need to put in more filters. It’s not that easy for people to contact me,” Mairay said in an interview.
Analysts said the episode risked eroding the trust of Mailey, a former private sector economist. He tames the Argentine inflation crisis through a radical austerity program and has formed a prominent alliance with Argentina and the US technical leaders.
“In the medium to long term, this will taint the credibility of the president. [even if] That was [honest] Marcelo Garcia, America’s Director of Consultant Horizon Engage, said:
“For foreign investors, this cultivates the already existing doubts about the government’s political capabilities and raises the fear that unforced errors could put his reform program at risk,” he said. I said that.
Argentine stock market fell more than 5% on Monday, but the peso fell 2% against the dollar in a key parallel exchange market.
Few Argentina were affected financially by the coin crash. X Post analysis states that it suggests that most $Libra buyers are in the US and Asia. They added that the coin was never listed in exchanges used by the “majority” of Argentine crypto users.
Mylay’s opponents seem unlikely to secure the two-thirds of the majority needed to fire each president in Congress, and Centlist Block says they don’t support the proposal.
Mainstream right-wing Pro, an ally of Milei startup La Libertad Avanza Coalition, said the episode was “serious” because it includes “national credibility.” . . But the president’s aides denounced the “political opportunist” leftist leader in calling for his expulsion.
However, analysts say the president’s investigation could strain his approval rating, which has been raised by around 50% over the past year as Argentina prepares for the legislative election in October. He said there is.
Juankulsdiaz, managing director of Sefeidas Group, a consulting firm in Buenos Aires, said the scandal threatened to undermine the minority government’s negotiating position in parliament, which is about to pass election reform bills.
“It was the first important crisis that the government faced,” he said. “There’s room to pilot it [but] It’s important to know how we manage the situation in the coming days and weeks. ”
