Do you remember when Solayer developer Chaofan Shou said he and Solayer engineers lost over $2 million on LIBRA? And that quote "let's see what two hackers and an idle weekend can bring us".
The weekend has just ended, and the LIBRA project has indeed been exposed to many dramas. BlockBeats has compiled the currently known stakeholders and their statements related to the issuance of LIBRA, trying to piece together the entire process of this LIBRA farce.
Related reading:《After the Argentine President "issued a coin" and shilled, the team made over $100 million in 4 hours》
Currently, the parties involved in LIBRA include President Milei, the project party KIP Protocol, the market maker Kelsier Ventures and its founder Hayden Davis, a person close to the Argentine government, and multiple project parties including Jupiter.
The team staged an internal conflict, with multiple parties self-exposing
In the early morning of February 16, KIP Protocol posted on X stating that the issuance and market making of the LIBRA token were entirely handled by Kelsier Ventures and the project initiator Hayden Davis, and no related wallets belong to KIP or myself (referring to co-founder Julian). KIP was only invited to manage and oversee the selection of funded technical projects after the launch.
At 8 am on February 16, Hayden Davis released a three-minute clarification video and related announcement, in which he mainly conveyed the following information:
1. Hayden Davis confirmed that he is an advisor to Argentine President Javier Milei;
2. All recovered funds - including all fees, earnings, liquidity, and everything recoverable - will be injected into the Libra trading pair within the next 24 to 48 hours;
3. Exposed that projects such as Photon, Bullex, Meteora, Jupiter, and Moonshot have profited on LIBRA.
An hour later, the official presidential office account of Argentina released an announcement explaining the background information of the LIBRA project, stating that on October 19, 2024, Argentine President Javier Milei met with representatives of KIP Protocol. At this meeting, KIP introduced its plan to develop a project called "Viva la Libertad" to use blockchain technology to provide financing support for private enterprises in Argentina.
On January 30, 2025, the President met with Hayden Mark Davis at the Presidential Palace, and according to the KIP Protocol representative, Mr. Davis would provide the technical infrastructure for the project. It was stated that Hayden Davis has no relationship with the Argentine government and was only introduced by the KIP Protocol representative as one of the project's partners.
Solayer developer Chaofan Shou, who suffered losses, first claimed that the market maker/creator of the LIBRA token was directly related to Arunkumar Sugadevan and another serial pool withdrawal scammer from India, questioning whether Kelsier Ventures had outsourced the token issuance to an Indian company. Through time series analysis to track the flow of funds, it was found that the creators of the LIBRA token were also insiders of the MELANIA and ENRON tokens, and were the developers of the OG.FUN project, and had already washed over $15 million.
Jupiter, Meteora and others are embroiled in public opinion crisis
In Hayden Davis' video, the most explosive content was his statement that projects such as Photon, Bullex, Meteora, Jupiter, and Moonshot had participated in the issuance of LIBRA and profited greatly.
Photon and Bullex are popular meme trading platforms in the English community, while Meteora, Jupiter, and Moonshot are one-stop service providers for Solana meme coins that have become popular since the TRUMP coin.
Meteora's founder Ben even released a clarification statement before Hayden Davis' video, stating that the LIBRA team used the Meteora platform without permission, but Meteora never controlled any tokens and had no direct contact with Milei.
Jupiter's team members also released clarifications, stating that a few members of the Jupiter team were informed by Kelsier Ventures about a token project related to the Argentine President about two weeks ago, but the Jupiter team did not receive any LIBRA tokens or related rewards.
Insider reveals: A manipulated President
The most explosive LIBRA-related news came on the morning of February 16, when community developer @DiogenesCasares published an article titled "Bribery, Insiders, and a Manipulated President | The Truth About the $LIBRA Incident", claiming to be an insider of the LIBRA coin issuance plan.
In the article, he wrote that he had contacted several core figures in the Argentine crypto community, mainly executives of large crypto exchanges and platforms, and they all said they had not heard of this project. One person mentioned that an idea led by US investors, including the CEO of JUP, to create a token called $afuera had been proposed but not implemented.
He then learned that a close confidant of Milei had received a $5 million bribe to bring this token project to the President's attention. This does not mean that Milei himself received the bribe, but that his confidant took the money to facilitate Milei's endorsement of the token.
The author stated that the behind-the-scenes team of this project is highly similar to the previous token launched by Melania Trump, and on-chain evidence shows that many early buyers of $LIBRA are associated with the Melania token. He also said the Meteora team has ties to the Melania token and played an important role in the LIBRA project, or at least had some understanding of the plan.
Moreover, many key figures in the crypto industry and the Solana ecosystem had already obtained inside information about LIBRA and received token addresses before most ordinary buyers (who usually rely only on on-chain public data). Additionally, $20 million was transferred across multiple wallets, with these wallets first receiving LIBRA from the developers and then quickly selling it for profit.
The author speculates that a group of foreign VCs, traders, intermediaries, and crypto KOLs tried to sell this token to the Argentine government, and the Milei government, being open to new ideas, became their target, with a sense of absurdity, like "the king of Chu liked slender waists".
In the supplementary information, the author further emphasizes that Milei himself was not directly involved, and the parties involved were more likely to be a member of his government team.
Consistent with this information, President Milei has declared in a statement that the Argentine Anti-Corruption Office will intervene to investigate whether any government members, including the president himself, have engaged in improper conduct. A special investigation unit (UTI) has also been established, with members from regulatory agencies in the fields of crypto assets, financial activities, and money laundering. This group will integrate information and urgently investigate the issuance of the cryptocurrency LIBRA and all involved companies and individuals. All evidence obtained from the investigation will be transferred to the judiciary to determine whether the KIP Protocol project-related companies or individuals have committed any crimes.
The Collapse of the meme Conspiracy Group?
Some community members are reflecting on why they lost money, and others are actively seeking redress. Developer Farokh (@farokh) has expressed a hope that LIBRA project leader Hayden Davis will expose the list of KOLs who accepted LIBRA token marketing remuneration, and has called on crypto media and capable individuals to investigate this matter.
Previously, Dave Portnoy stated in a Space that he had received 6 million LIBRA tokens for marketing purposes and knew the token's issuance contract in advance, using a small wallet to buy in early. The KIP team had also discussed with him how to help him issue his own token.
Crypto KOL Beanie (@beaniemaxi) mockingly stated that when even Dave Portnoy starts playing the role of the righteous whistleblower KOL, you can imagine how deep this matter goes and how dirty the "trenches" are. (Note: Dave Portnoy previously launched the meme coin JAILSTOOL as a parody, and CZ had also retweeted one of Dave Portnoy's tweets, saying "To all the meme coin players crying now: we all know the rules of the game, everyone is here to make money, no one is deceiving anyone. If you're buying and selling shit coins, you should be prepared to lose your investment. That's the risk.")
Beanie stated in the investigation around Kelsier Ventures that the meme coin KOL champ is a partner of the Kelsier Ventures team.
And the crypto KOL NDF is both a member of the Kelsier Ventures team and a member of the Fantom Troupe, which explains how the inside information about LIBRA leaked to the inner circle. It's akin to a Wall Street M&A investment banker also working as a day trader at the same firm, clearly a conflict of interest.
Beanie described Kelsier Ventures as a family-style criminal group. In addition to CEO Hayden Davis, his father Tom Davis serves as the chairman, and his brother Gideon Davis as the COO. Currently, Gideon has cleared his X bio and deactivated his Instagram.
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