President Javier Milei has announced a cryptocurrency designed to help local companies Argentinian, but his support was received with wide concern about a possible blow, leading him to delete the post.
Malei initially promoted Libra on Friday night in an X post, saying that the money raised would be intended to help small and medium-sized companies in Argentina and emphasizing that the project was management privately. In a text message, he added that he would have no personal financial benefit with the venture.
The name of the crypto seemed to refer to the political party of Milei, La Libertad Avanza, or his libertarian roots as an economist. Milei told Bloomberg that he met the company behind the coin, Kip Protocol, months ago. The company’s website includes a blog post with a selfie of his co -founder and the Argentine president making a positive sign, dated October 20.
The Argentines immediately began to panic whether the president’s social networks had been hacked or Milei had been fooled by cryptocurrency scammers.
Community notes published in X – the social media platform owned by Milei ally, Elon Musk – warned people against the coin. Cryptocurrency blows, often called “Rug Pulls”, are common on social networks.
Milei deleted the initial post five hours later, saying that he was not “aware of the details of the project and, after becoming aware, I decided not to continue disclosing.”
Despite being a favorite of Wall Street, Malei has so far struggled to attract foreign investment to Argentina, even as his government fights inflation and approves favorable business reforms. He has not yet dismantled the complex exchange controls his administration inherited over a year ago, although Argentina’s economy should grow again by 2025 after two years of severe recession.
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Even before the token drama on Friday, obstacles were accumulating in Buenos Aires. US President Donald Trump’s rates tend to disproportionately impact Argentina, while Nissan is reducing car production and Mercedes-Benz is leaving the country after more than 70 years. Argentina’s economic life line, the Paraná River, which carries most of the country’s agricultural exports, faced a setback after Milei’s government canceled a auction to deepen it, receiving only a single proposal, while ships fight to Navigating narrow waters.
However, Milei concluded his initial post by promoting the cryptocurrency token saying “the world wants to invest in Argentina,” ending with his characteristic slogan “Long Live Freedom, Damn.”
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