Argentine President Javier Milei has denied selling a newly launched cryptocurrency which collapsed shortly after he talked about it in a social media put up on Friday.
The cryptocoin $Libra rapidly rose in worth earlier than nosediving, inflicting extreme losses for almost all of people that had invested in it.
A choose will now decide if the president ought to face fraud costs over the incident.
On Monday, Milei mentioned he had acted “in good religion” and dismissed buyers’ complaints, evaluating their actions to individuals who gamble: “In the event you go to a on line casino and lose cash, what’s there to complain about while you knew the dangers?”
President Milei spoke in regards to the $Libra incident in an interview with Argentine TV channel Todo Noticias on Monday, after a weekend throughout which he had stayed unusually quiet on social media.
He insisted that his put up on X, which contained a hyperlink to a web site promoting $Libra, didn’t represent an endorsement.
“I did not market it, I merely shared it,” he advised Todo Noticias’ Jonny Viale.
Milei’s put up, which he deleted after just some hours, drew heavy criticism not simply from his political rivals in Argentina but additionally from those that had invested within the cryptocurrency.
Some have argued the $Libra launch resembled a “rug pull” – the place promoters attract consumers, solely to cease buying and selling exercise and make off with the cash raised from gross sales.
The presidential workplace insisted that Milei was by no means concerned within the improvement of $Libra and introduced that the Anti-Corruption Workplace would decide if the president had acted improperly.
Milei himself defended deleting his put up, saying that on the time he didn’t know “the main points of the mission and after studying about it, I made a decision to not proceed selling it”.
Opposition politicians, nonetheless, haven’t been placated by the statements, threatening to begin impeachment proceedings towards Milei.
Whereas political analysts level out that the opposition is unlikely to get the votes wanted for an impeachment trial to go forward, the scandal threatens to divert Milei’s consideration away from his radical reform agenda.
A federal choose has been tasked with deciding whether or not fraud allegations introduced towards the president by various plaintiffs ought to go forward.
In his TV interview, Milei appeared combative, stressing that he had “nothing to cover”.
He additionally mentioned that those that had invested in $Libra had carried out so “voluntarily” and knew of the dangers.
“It is like taking part in Russian roulette and getting the bullet.”
