- Argentine President Javier Milei was implicated in the suit but said he did not market the Libra token, while court action is pending against the companies.
- Kelsier Ventures, KIP Protocol, and Meteora are suing a New York court for their suspected role in the Libra token scandal in which investors lost approximately $107 million.
- The matter is pending before the Supreme Court of New York.
Libra Token Claims of Market Manipulation
The Libra Token suit contends that the manipulations of liquidity pools by the companies and their false and misleading statements to their detriment caused enormous losses to purchasers. The March 17 suit filed by Burwick Law depicts the issuance of the Libra token as fraudulent and deceptive, causing substantial financial harm to many investors.
The complaint alleges that Meteora and KIP Protocol, the two crypto firms behind Libra, created an asymmetric liquidity pool to enable artificially pumping up the token’s price. This enabled the insiders to cash out huge amounts of money prior to the token’s value collapsing, leaving other investors with enormous losses.
Within hours, they reportedly cashed out roughly $107 million, which dropped LIBRA 94% in market values. The court filing also refers to Argentine President Javier Milei, the promoter of the Libra token as a tool for spurring private-sector investment in the nation, but not mentioned as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Economic Losses and Legal Implications
Burwick Law argues that the Libra companies used Milei’s reputation to lead the token to believe that it was legitimate. Investors were purportedly misled to believe that it had real economic substance, they claim. The lawsuit also reveals that about 85% of the tokens were held back when it was being launched, and important information about the liquidity deal was never made public.
These actions, combined with misleading promotions, allegedly deprived investors of crucial information, making the investment highly risky.
Statistics from blockchain analytics firm Nansen show that of 15,430 major Libra wallets that were analyzed, over 86% sold at a loss and accounted for a total loss of $251 million.
The rest of the wallets either broke even by about $180 million. The largest winner seems to be Kelsier Ventures and its founder, Hayden Davis, who allegedly made close to $100 million from the token sale. Davis, who is now at risk of being taken to court, has denied that he ever possessed the tokens, stating that he did not sell any.
President Milei, on his own part, has attempted to distance himself from the Libra Token scandal, stating that he did not endorse the token but only gave information regarding it. There are investors, however, who have implicated him as a partner to the token’s rise and fall.
Argentina’s opposition party has even called for his impeachment, though that has not picked up much pace. Waiting in the wings as the case unfolds are most of the investors who have been affected, with legal action still pending against the parties that launched the token.
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