Argentina's President Helped Launch a Memecoin — and It Immediately Imploded
Even people within crypto are turning against people launching tokens, including Javier Milei and the new $LIBRA token
This week was officially the week crypto turned on memecoins. As the founder of a project that launched years ago on the thesis that anger against memecoins would one day bubble over, it feels good to be right. I just didn’t think it would be Presidents launching the tokens that proved my point.
Alas, this week saw fury and outrage befall both Argentina’s President Javier Milei and ‘CZ’ the founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange. Both used their platforms to promote memecoins this week. Both felt the blowback. Let’s get into it…
Argentina’s $LIBRA Token Disaster
Friday night, Argentina President Javier Mieli posted to X in a now deleted tweet to promote Viva La Libertad project, a token launched to attract funds to “boost the Argentine economy by funding small projects and local businesses, supporting those who seek to grow their ventures and contribute to the country’s development.”
Importantly, the site didn’t include details on token allocations or many details about anything at all. Even the contact button led to a simple Google Form. Nonetheless, people started buying the token immediately, perhaps predicting there would be a massive run up in price, similar to what happened after President Trump launched his $TRUMP memecoin.
In the ensuing hours, many piled into the token. Because of how these tokens are locked, the fully diluted value is never real, but the charts would have you believe the thing reached a multi-billion dollar market cap before collapsing to under $200 million.
Milei then distanced himself from the project saying that he didn’t know all the details. I wrote up a full thread on this with some more details — but it’s not as simple to say he promoted a scam. These token launches are getting way easier to front-run. People can snipe tokens and then manipulate prices to pump and dump — even if the people who launched the project aren’t doing the manipulating.
Still, it’s a terrible look for Milei — and he should have known better than to promote a token that was clearly not thought through at all. Coinage is working on an interview with the crypto masterminds of the project.
For now, Argentina’s opposition leader is capitalizing on the anger towards Milei and opening a possible impeachment push. That’s pretty wild, considering Trump’s memecoin is also now also off about 75% from its peak after launch.
Binance Founder CZ’s Memecoin Fail
The founder of the world’s largest crypto exchange also had himself a bit of a memecoin fail this week as well.
In memecoin land, pets are often better at getting people to buy (like Elon Musk’s favored Dogecoin.) Thus, the founder of Binance, CZ, teased that he would be revealing his dog’s name and a picture. He gave people ample time to prepare to launch memecoins in his dog’s name and even said the exact moment in Dubai time he’d post.
He revealed his dog is named Broccoli, and insanity ensued. Thousands of memecoins launched and millions of dollars were scammed from people. While none of these were explicitly launched by CZ, it was clear what was going to happen after he posted.
In follow up tweets, CZ admitted he had did all of this to trigger a bunch of activity on Binance’s blockchain, Binance Smart Chain, where some of the Broccoli memecoins fared better. “Yes, I wanted to see more activity on BSC,” he said. “And I did not want to get involved in issuing/running a meme coin, as I have zero experience.”
After this week, many people in crypto started voicing their frustration around memecoins and the grift they represent. One of our favorite guests, Dragonfly GP Rob Hadick, had a nice post on why no one is going to stop this race to the bottom.
As a community-owned outlet, Coinage has always resisted launching a token because we prefer our Co-op model. All mints go directly to the DAO, and don’t set up scams that involve market makers or early insiders dumping allocations. Instead, minting a Coinage membership pass opens up a path to real ownership (at the same price all of us paid.)
It’s good to see memecoins being called out as scams and tiresome zero-sum games. Perhaps people like Milei and CZ should do better with the projects they are promoting.
ICYMI - NFT Projects Are Launching Tokens Now
This week, Coinage caught up with famed NFT project Doodles about their upcoming token launch. Watch Head of Strategy Austin Hurwitz explain why Doodles is launching the $DOOD token — and why he hopes to set up a very different experience for NFT holders.