An Argentine federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal investigation into President Javier Milei, his sister Karina Milei, and nine other defendants over the collapse of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency, ruling that the events did not constitute a criminal offense. The October 23, 2026 ruling ends an inquiry that had hung over Milei's presidency since he promoted the token on social media in February 2025.
The judge's reasoning
Federal Judge Marcelo MartÃnez de Giorgi issued the dismissal at the request of prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, according to court records reported by La Nación. In the ruling, the judge wrote that "the reported events do not constitute a criminal offence," and held that investor losses and the token's rise and fall in price were, by themselves, insufficient to establish fraud.
MartÃnez de Giorgi acknowledged that Milei's institutional standing could have given the post "greater impact", but wrote that those things "do not, in themselves, amount to a fraudulent scheme." He found no official act linking the president's office to the project, no use of public resources, and insufficient evidence that Karina Milei had received payment to arrange access to her brother.
What happened with $LIBRA
The scandal erupted on February 14, 2025, when Milei promoted $LIBRA on X as a private initiative intended to finance small Argentine businesses and startups. The token's market capitalization reached about $4.56 billion that evening before its value fell by more than 94% within 11 hours, according to data cited by Cointelegraph. Blockchain researchers said around $99 million worth of cryptocurrency was withdrawn by eight digital wallets linked to the token's creator, and analytics firm Nansen found that 86% of LIBRA traders lost a combined $251 million while a smaller number of traders made $180 million in profits.
Argentina's fintech chamber warned at the time that the pattern could amount to a "rug pull," in which developers pump a token's value before dumping their stake. Milei deleted his post, denied any link to the token, and said he had acted "in good faith." He later said, "I was not aware of the details of the project and once I found out, I decided to not continue giving it publicity," and in a Todo Noticias interview, he said, "I didn't promote it, I merely shared it."
The judge's dismissal also covers US businessman Hayden Davis, who called himself a "launch adviser" for the token, acknowledged holding close to $100 million after the crash, and denies wrongdoing, as well as Argentine entrepreneurs Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Terrones Godoy.
Reactions on both sides
The presidential office celebrated the ruling on X, writing that "for the first time in history, a President of the Nation was investigated with complete freedom, resulting in absolute proof of his innocence," and calling the case "a failed attempt at an institutional coup." Milei himself said the decision exposed an "enormous political and media operation" aimed at undermining the presidency.
The opposition reacted with anger. The left-wing Peronist youth organization La Cámpora wrote on X: "There is no justice in our country. The judiciary is controlled by a mafia serving those in power." Some opposition lawmakers had previously called for impeachment proceedings against the president over the scandal.
What remains open
The dismissal closes the criminal case, but the ruling is not yet final: the file is archived only once all legal avenues are exhausted, and reports indicate five investors excluded as private plaintiffs appealed to the federal criminal cassation court in September, leaving the door open to further challenges. A congressional inquiry into the scandal and a review by Argentina's Anti-Corruption Office are reported to continue separately from the criminal case.
The bottom line: an Argentine court has decided that a president promoting a failed cryptocurrency, even one that briefly touched billions in market value, is not on its own a crime. The ruling ends Milei's gravest legal threat, but critics remain unconvinced and investors who lost money get no criminal verdict.
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Movement Proposition (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources:
- Al Jazeera — Argentinian judge drops fraud investigation into Milei over crypto scandal
- Reuters — Argentina drops probe into President Milei and sister over meme coin scandal
- Buenos Aires Herald — Milei and his sister Karina cleared in $LIBRA crypto scandal
- The Straits Times — Argentine judge clears President Milei of wrongdoing in meme coin scandal