Do you remember when Solayer developer Chaofan Shou mentioned that he and the Solayer engineers lost over $2 million on LIBRA? And that line, "Let's see what two hackers and a free weekend can bring us."
The weekend has just ended, and the LIBRA project has indeed been exposed to many dramas. BlockBeats has compiled the known parties involved in the LIBRA issuance and their statements based on public information, attempting to piece together the entire farce of LIBRA.
Related reading: "Argentinian President 'Issues Coin' and Denies Accountability, Team Earns Over $100 Million in 4 Hours"
Currently, the parties involved in LIBRA include President Milei, project party KIP Protocol, market maker Kelsier Ventures and its founder Hayden Davis, informed individuals close to the Argentine government, and several project parties including Jupiter.
Team Infighting and Self-Disclosure
In the early hours of February 16, KIP Protocol posted on X stating that the issuance and market making of the LIBRA token were entirely the responsibility of Kelsier Ventures and the project's initiator Hayden Davis, and that no related wallets belonged to KIP or co-founder Julian. KIP was only invited to manage and supervise the selection of funded technical projects after the release. KIP publicly acknowledged its role in the project because the project information had been listed on the official website and recognized the potential of the plan.
At 8 AM on February 16, Hayden Davis released a three-minute clarification video and related announcement. The main points he conveyed in the video included:
Hayden Davis confirmed that he is an advisor to Argentine President Javier Milei;
All funds that can be recovered—including all fees, revenues, liquidity, and everything else—will be injected into the Libra trading pair within the next 24 to 48 hours;
It was revealed that projects like Photon, Bullex, Meteora, Jupiter, and Moonshot profited from LIBRA;
A document announcement was attached below the video, which included the following main information:
Hayden Davis's responsibility is to ensure LIBRA's liquidity while still controlling all related fees and funds;
Javier Milei's team had assured Hayden Davis that they would continue to support during the LIBRA issuance, but Milei deleted tweets without prior notice to the team;
Julian Peh, the founder of KIP Network and the main sponsor of Libra Token, has committed no wrongdoing. Davis speculated that Milei's team attempted to shift the blame to Julian to evade their own responsibilities;
An hour later, the official account of the Argentine presidential office released an announcement explaining the background of the LIBRA project, stating that on October 19, 2024, Argentine President Javier Milei met with representatives of KIP Protocol in Argentina. During this meeting, KIP introduced its plan to develop a project called "Viva la Libertad," aimed at using 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. According to KIP Protocol representatives, Mr. Davis would provide the technical infrastructure for the project. It was stated that Hayden Davis had no relationship with the Argentine government and was only introduced by KIP Protocol as one of the project's partners.
The above are the responses from the main parties involved in the LIBRA project. During this process, Solayer developer Chaofan Shou, who suffered losses, first claimed that the market maker/creator of the LIBRA token was directly linked to Arunkumar Sugadevan and another Indian serial rug pull scammer, questioning whether Kelsier Ventures outsourced the token issuance to an Indian company. By analyzing the timeline to trace the flow of funds, it was discovered that the creator of the LIBRA token was also an insider of the MELANIA and ENRON tokens and was a developer of the OG.FUN project, having laundered over $15 million.
He later deleted that statement, indicating that Arunkumar Sugadevan was unrelated to LIBRA, merely sharing the same market maker. However, he created an infographic consolidating the relevant content of his investigation, claiming that the team involved in the LIBRA issuance and market making manipulated multiple meme coins.
Jupiter, Meteora, and Others Deep in Public Relations Crisis
In Hayden Davis's video, the most explosive content was his statement that projects like Photon, Bullex, Meteora, Jupiter, and Moonshot all participated in the issuance of LIBRA and profited significantly.
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 gained fame after the TRUMP coin. Many investors rushing into LIBRA did so because they found contract information on Moonshot and heavily invested.
In the comment section of the tweet released by President Milei on January 31 regarding his meeting with Hayden Davis, the founder of Meteora commented, "Changing the way the world looks," which the community took as evidence that Meteora was also involved in the internal planning of LIBRA. Therefore, Meteora's founder Ben even released a clarification statement before Hayden Davis published the video, stating that the LIBRA team used the unlicensed platform Meteora, but Meteora never controlled any tokens and had no direct contact with Milei.
Jupiter and its team members also released clarifications, stating that several members of the Jupiter team learned directly from Kelsier Ventures about two weeks ago that there might be a token project related to the Argentine president at some point in the future. "None of the Jupiter team members received LIBRA tokens or any related compensation. Jupiter founder Meow was unaware of the contract address or specific release time and did not participate in any related operations. At that time, he was in Tokyo and was sleeping during the token issuance.
In Jupiter's statement, it was mentioned that Meteora's founder Ben learned the contract address just minutes before the token issuance for verification purposes but only shared it with the Jupiter team after the information was made public.
After the fermentation of Davis's video, several project parties he mentioned released clarification statements. Almost all statements indicated that they would provide more detailed information to the community in the future, including Hayden Davis, who also stated that he would continue to release videos to disclose the information behind it. However, with the token price at stake, after two days of fermentation, LIBRA still only has a market value of $300 million.
Insider Revelations: A Manipulated President
The most explosive LIBRA-related news came on February 16, when community developer @DiogenesCasares published an article titled "Bribery, Insiders, and a Manipulated President | The Truth Behind the $LIBRA Incident," claiming to be an insider of the LIBRA issuance plan. He stated that he had started receiving news a week ago about rumors circulating in the market regarding a meme coin related to Milei that was about to be launched, sourced from traders and industry insiders with reliable information.
In the article, he wrote that he contacted several core figures in the Argentine crypto community, mainly executives from large crypto exchanges and platforms. They all stated that they had not heard of this project. One person mentioned that an idea led by American investors had been proposed, including the JUP CEO, who had wanted to create a token called $afuera, but this plan did not materialize.
He then learned that a close associate of Milei had received a $5 million bribe to push this token project in front of the president. This does not mean that Milei himself received a bribe, but rather that his associate received funds to facilitate Milei's endorsement of the token.
The author claimed that the behind-the-scenes team of this project was highly similar to the token launched by Melania, Trump's wife, and on-chain evidence indicated that many early wallets that rushed to buy $LIBRA were associated with the Melania token. He also stated that the Meteora team had connections with the Melania token and played an important role in the LIBRA project or at least had knowledge of the token's plans.
Moreover, many key figures in the crypto industry and the Solana ecosystem had already grasped the internal information of LIBRA and obtained the token address ahead of most ordinary buyers (who typically rely solely on publicly available on-chain data). Additionally, $20 million was transferred among multiple wallets, which first received LIBRA from the developers and then quickly sold off for profit.
The author speculates that a group of foreign VCs, traders, intermediaries, and KOLs in the crypto space attempted to promote this token to the Argentine government, and the Milei government, being open to new ideas, became their target, evoking a somewhat absurd feeling reminiscent of "the King of Chu favors slender waists."
In supplementary information, the author also emphasized that Milei himself was not directly involved; it is more likely that a member of his government team was implicated.
In light of this information, President Milei requested the Argentine Anti-Corruption Office to intervene and investigate whether there were any improprieties among government members, including the president himself. A special investigation team (UTI) was also established, with members from regulatory agencies related to crypto assets, financial activities, and money laundering. This team will consolidate information and urgently investigate the issuance of the cryptocurrency LIBRA and all involved enterprises and individuals. All evidence obtained from the investigation will be handed over to the judicial authorities to determine whether the enterprises or individuals related to the KIP Protocol project have committed crimes.
The Collapse of the Meme Conspiracy Group?
Some in the community are reflecting on why they lost money, while others are actively seeking to protect their rights. Developer Farokh (@farokh) expressed hope that the list of KOLs who received marketing compensation for LIBRA from project leader Hayden Davis would be exposed, and he called on crypto media and capable individuals to investigate this matter together.
Previously, Dave Portnoy stated in a Space that he received 6 million LIBRA tokens for marketing and that he knew the token's issuance contract in advance, buying in early through a small wallet, while the KIP team had discussed with him how to help him issue his own token.
Crypto KOL Beanie (@beaniemaxi) sarcastically remarked that when Dave Portnoy starts playing the role of a righteous whistleblower KOL, you can imagine how deep this matter goes and how dirty it is in the "trenches." (Author's note: Dave Portnoy previously launched a parody meme coin called JAILSTOOL. Earlier, CZ had retweeted Dave Portnoy's tweet, "To all the meme coin players crying right now: We all know the rules of the game; everyone is here to make money, and no one is deceiving anyone. If you're buying and selling junk coins, you should be prepared to lose your entire investment. That's the risk.")
Beanie stated that in the investigation surrounding Kelsier Ventures, meme coin KOL champ is a partner of the Kelsier Ventures team.
Meanwhile, crypto KOL NDF is both a member of Kelsier Ventures and part of the Fantom Troupe, which explains how the advance news of LIBRA leaked into the inner circle. This is akin to a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) investment banker on Wall Street also working as a day trader at the same firm, clearly presenting a conflict of interest.
Beanie claimed that Kelsier Ventures is essentially a family-run crime syndicate. In addition to CEO Hayden Davis, his father Tom Davis serves as chairman, and his brother Gideon Davis serves as COO. Currently, Gideon has cleared his X profile and deactivated his Instagram.
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