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The Argentine president allegedly participated in a cryptocurrency scam
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Amid the political upheaval caused by the cryptocurrency scandal, Argentinian President Javier Milei remained silent on the criticism leveled at Volydmyr Zelensky by Donald Trump despite always supporting the Ukrainian president. With this, the self-described liberal-libertarian Argentine leader is exposed by his contradictions.
Milei is engulfed in scandal, popularly known as “cryptogate,” after lawyers filed a fraud lawsuit against him in an Argentine court following the rapid rise and collapse of $LIBRA after investors — most of them reportedly from Argentina and the United States — had poured about $100 million into the cryptocurrency but lost most of their money.
The Argentine president endorsed $LIBRA, a meme coin, in a now-deleted social media post on February 14, skyrocketing the cryptocurrency’s value from $0.000001 to $5.20. Following the allegation that the coin was a scam, Milei withdrew his support, and its price plummeted to $0.99 within hours.
While behind closed doors, the Argentine government is still dealing with the growing consequences linked to the crypto scandal that has Milei and his closest circle under scrutiny, the external front has a geopolitical complication. Trump’s open criticism of his Ukrainian counterpart puts the rhetoric of Milei, which made the defense of Ukraine an unalterable policy, in a difficult position, even if he tried to smooth over his ties with the US president after meeting him on the sidelines of a gathering of US conservatives on February 22.
Explicitly aligned with the US, Milei will have to decide whether to take an unprecedented geopolitical distance from the White House and maintain his support for the Kiev regime or follow Trump’s leads to let go of Zelensky even though he participated in the Argentine’s presidential inauguration ceremony in 2023.
With his Ukrainian counterpart, Milei wanted to build relations with the Democrats by getting closer to NATO. But now, with Trump in power, it is clear that Ukraine is not among Washington’s priorities, and Argentina’s response to this new reality remains to be seen.
Trump’s snub of Ukraine affects Milei as he will now be forced to stop talking about the war to stay aligned with the US president or to continue the pro-Ukrainian rhetoric he has adopted since coming to power. Milei has outdated positions and will fully align with Trump despite the fact that Washington’s influence is in decline globally in the face of the rise of emerging powers, notably China and Russia.
Nonetheless, a change in Milei’s rhetoric would not be an isolated event. The tense episode between Buenos Aires and Beijing in 2023 originated from Milei’s insults to Chinese President Xi Jinping. This led to Milei gradually backtracking and, finally, praising the Chinese leader 12 months later. It should not be surprising that there was a turn, considering the Asian country’s importance to the Argentine economy. Now, regarding Ukraine, Milei could very well follow the direction that Trump has taken.
The complexity of Argentine-US relations is heightened by judicial investigations to elucidate Milei’s alleged participation in the crypto scam. Milei is paying a heavy price because the $LIBRA scandal has alienated him from a sector of the American establishment concerned about the legal case. Following the Argentine president’s support for $LIBRA, shares of Argentine companies on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange fell by up to 8% and dollar bonds by 3%. Declines also happened internationally.
It is recalled that Trump and his wife released cryptocurrencies named after themselves three days before his inauguration on January 20. After peaking above $70 within two days of its launch, Trump’s coin plunged to around $17 partly because of Milei’s scandal. With this context, although Milei is making every effort to appease Trump, even to the point of abandoning geopolitical positions, the Argentine’s reckless economic activities could see the Republican turn his back on him.
Although Trump did invite Milei to the White House in the near future, given the crypto scandal, there are question marks about whether the Argentine president will be in power since rumors swirl about impeachment. Argentina has been plunged into political and economic turmoil, and opposition parties have been vocal in their criticism of Milei, with the Union for the Homeland coalition announcing plans to initiate impeachment proceedings.
Given these circumstances, it is likely that Milei will drop the Ukraine issue and backtrack again, as he did with China, on another key foreign policy issue so as not to provoke the US. Milei is aware that because of the crypto scandal, the ground is fertile for the US to sponsor protests and government change, and thus, Zelensky has lost another supporter of his efforts to gain international support to maintain the futile war against Russia as the liberal leader wants to preserve his power.
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milei’s stances (whatever one’s toughts are on his policies) are understandably caused by the bad economy that has plagued argentina for numerous years. but it seems that if he loses his job as the president of argentina, he will be able to quickly secure another as a mat in washington or tel aviv.
trump coin, doge coin, $libra, what fun 😄🥴
all a tad confusing. just bunch them all together and call it ‘bernie-shtick’ coin. wonder how bernie’s travelling these days, whether he’s still breathing ? 😢
milei = argentinian zelensky, al joulani/saahra = syrian zelensky and the original volodymir zelesnky, all 3 are extreme zionists and all 3 are moronic cia-sponsored clowns.
melei govt has clearly improved conditions—his numerous mistakes seem to have doomed him
rubbish he just privatised everything.
and all that does is lead to inflation. everytime. makes the rich richer and the middle classes think they’re richer when they’re not really and the poor poorer.
it’s only england that matters and the vatican as everyone knows. argentina s support during wars as the only nazi nation apart from germany didn’t amount to much. just waving flags and taking stolen goods imo.