An Argentine federal judge has closed the criminal investigation into LIBRA, the memecoin that President Javier Milei promoted on X in February 2025 and that crashed within hours. Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi signed the ruling on Friday, October 23, 2026, at the request of prosecutor Eduardo Taiano.
Key facts
- 11 people were cleared, including President Milei, his sister Karina Milei (the presidency’s secretary general), US businessman Hayden Davis, who led the token’s launch, lobbyist Mauricio Novelli and KIP Protocol CEO Julian Peh.
- The judge ruled that the facts under review do not amount to a crime. None of the 11 was ever formally questioned.
- In his view, Milei’s post may have given the launch more attention and made buyers more confident, but a price rise followed by a crash is not fraud unless someone made a specific false statement that pushed people to buy. The investigation did not find one.
- The court found no proof that Karina Milei asked for or received money to arrange access to the president, and no proof that LIBRA money reached public officials.
What happened with LIBRA
- On February 14, 2025, Milei shared LIBRA on X, saying it would help fund small Argentine businesses. The Solana-based token jumped from about one cent to nearly $5.
- It then lost more than 90% of its value. Buyers lost more than $250 million, and wallets linked to the launch team pulled out around $100 million.
- Milei deleted the post, denied any link to the project and said he acted in good faith. Davis has also denied wrongdoing.
What comes next
- The ruling can still be challenged. Investors who joined the case as complainants were removed by the judge in July, and an appeals court upheld that in September. They have asked Argentina’s top criminal appeals court to reinstate them. If it does, they could appeal.
- A separate class action in New York against Davis and others was already dismissed in September. Milei was not a defendant there.
- Milei called the case a political attack. Opposition politicians criticized the decision, saying it came without questioning the suspects and after the investors were pushed out.
Why it matters
LIBRA became one of the best-known examples of a sitting head of state promoting a memecoin that then collapsed, and tens of thousands of buyers lost money. The ruling sets an important marker: in Argentina, at least, promoting a token that crashes is not a crime by itself without proof of a concrete lie. For crypto buyers, the lesson is plain: an endorsement from a famous person, even a president, is no protection, and getting money back after a memecoin collapse is very hard.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
