Argentina’s President Javier Milei has distanced himself from the LIBRA meme coin after promoting it in a now-deleted tweet.

His clarification follows accusations that the project’s developers drained approximately $107 million in what appears to be a pump-and-dump scheme.

LIBRA Meme Coin Controversy

On February 14, Milei’s X account endorsed LIBRA, a Solana-based meme coin, which triggered a surge in trading activity. The token’s market cap briefly hit $4.5 billion as investors rushed in.

The project claimed its goal was to support Argentina’s economy by funding small businesses and local ventures. Julian Peh, co-founder of KIP Protocol, confirmed the platform’s involvement, stating that its role was to manage fund distribution rather than oversee the token itself.

“Our primary role is to help run the fund allocation to the Argentinian companies, and less on the token side. We are not the [Market maker]…We will put together the plan to run the Project Libertad as per the original objective. We would not have gotten the help we did to launch it if we were not serious. Not a single SOL will be used outside of the purpose of running Project Viva La Libertad,” Peh said.

However, doubts quickly emerged regarding the legitimacy of the launch. Crypto analyst Conor Grogan pointed out that the wallet deploying LIBRA had received funds from an exchange that does not require Know Your Customer (KYC) verification.

As concerns mounted, Milei addressed the issue, stating that he had initially shared the project to support a private initiative, something he does regularly.

Upon further review, he retracted his endorsement and deleted the post. Following his statement, LIBRA’s price plummeted by around 90%.

“I was not aware of the details of the project and after having become aware of it I decided not to continue spreading the word (that is why I deleted the tweet). To the filthy rats of the political caste who want to take advantage of this situation to do harm, I want to say that every day they confirm how vile politicians are, and they increase our conviction to kick them in the ass,” Milei said.

Meanwhile, blockchain analysis from Lookonchain revealed that insiders had withdrawn approximately $107 million. Eight wallets linked to the project moved $57.6 million in USDC and 249,671 SOL, worth nearly $50 million. Analysts suggested these withdrawals were tied to liquidity manipulation and accumulated fees.

Additionally, crypto analyst EmberCN reported that insiders made at least $20.18 million by front-running the promotional tweet, buying seconds after it was posted, and selling after the price spike.

Political Meme Coins and Industry Reactions

The LIBRA fallout highlights concerns surrounding politically affiliated meme coins. Similar speculation surrounded the launch of the TRUMP token in January and the Central African Republic’s CAR meme coin.

In both cases, traders rushed to buy in before questioning their legitimacy. While those tokens turned out to be authentic, LIBRA’s rapid collapse has raised alarms within the crypto community.

Industry figures have condemned the situation. Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje criticized the trend, suggesting that meme coin traders do not engage with decentralized finance or blockchain technology.

“[Meme coin traders are] a demographic that doesnt care about decentralized finance or even blockchains. So memes arent stealing any attention, since the participants werent our participants in the first place,” Cronje stated.

On the other hand, SlowMist founder Yu Xian called for accountability, stating that those responsible should face legal consequences.

“Support everyone in defending your rights; the instigator must be punished by law, and hopefully, they will also face the President’s wrath,” Xian added.

The LIBRA controversy reflects the risks of speculative meme coins, particularly when linked to political figures. The incident has further fueled discussions about regulatory oversight and investor protection in the crypto space.

XRP price has surged 10% in the last 24 hours, with its trading volume skyrocketing nearly 50% to $8 billion. This strong momentum has pushed XRP’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) back into overbought territory for the first time in almost a month. That surge happened after the SEC accepted its ETF filling, although this doesn’t mean it was approved yet.

Meanwhile, whale activity remains stagnant, with the number of large holders showing only slight movement after a recent surge and decline. As XRP hovers near key resistance levels, traders are watching closely to see whether this rally has the strength to continue or if a correction is on the horizon.

XRP RSI Is Back to Overbought After Almost a Month

XRP’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) has surged to 72.2, climbing from 50 just a day ago.

This sharp increase highlights strong bullish momentum in XRP price action. For the first time in nearly a month, traders have pushed the asset into overbought territory.

Such a rapid rise in RSI suggests intensified XRP buying pressure, signaling that demand has significantly outpaced supply in the short term.

The RSI is a momentum indicator that measures the speed and magnitude of price movements on a scale from 0 to 100.

Typically, an RSI above 70 suggests an asset is overbought and may be due for a pullback, while an RSI below 30 indicates oversold conditions, potentially leading to a rebound.

With XRP now in overbought territory, the likelihood of a short-term correction increases as traders might start securing profits. However, if buying pressure persists and RSI remains elevated, it could indicate the start of a stronger bullish trend, pushing XRP to higher resistance levels.

XRP Whale Activity Is Stagnant

The number of XRP whales – wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP – jumped from 2,081 to 2,136 between February 1 and February 2, signaling strong accumulation.

However, this surge was short-lived, as the count began to decline, reaching 2,118 by February 9. Such movements suggest that while some large holders were accumulating, others may have started taking profits or redistributing their holdings.

Tracking whale activity is important because these large holders can significantly impact price action. After the recent decline, the number of whales has started rising again, but at a slow pace, currently at 2,127.

This suggests some renewed accumulation, but the near-stable trend in recent days indicates hesitation. Without stronger buying activity, XRP may remain in consolidation rather than gaining upward momentum.

XRP Price Prediction: Will XRP Recover $3 Levels In February?

XRP price has surged over 10% in the last 24 hours, showing strong bullish momentum. Its EMA lines suggest that golden crosses could form soon, which often signal further upside.

If the uptrend continues, XRP could test a key resistance at $2.96, and if broken, it may push toward $3.15. A strong breakout could even drive XRP to $3.36, representing a potential 24.5% gain. That could be driven by the approval of XRP ETF by the SEC, which could happen soon.

However, if the uptrend loses momentum, XRP price could face a pullback, testing support at $2.54.

A break below this level might lead to further downside toward $2.26, and if selling pressure intensifies, XRP could drop as low as $1.77.

Kaito just released its whitepaper, announcing a new KAITO token with an accompanying airdrop. Kaito intends to use AI tools to monetarily reward novel and insightful social media posts.

In other words, it’s set a monumental challenge for itself. The community is excited to see if Kaito is up for the challenge, but some users are already planning to game the system.

Kaito Will Launch a Token Soon

Kaito, an AI-focused Web3 information platform, has been generating a lot of buzz lately. Its data and analysis have been useful in identifying crypto trends. It highlighted, for example, that RWA and DeFi projects are taking momentum from meme coins. Today, it released its long-awaited whitepaper, unveiling a KAITO token, which will be airdropped soon.

“Entering into the new era of attention and InfoFi, KAITO will be your key to the distribution center of information, attention and capital. Attention is a core part of today’s economy. Our view is that AI-powered InfoFi is the endgame for information efficiency, and we couldn’t be more excited for this next chapter,” the firm claimed on social media.

Kaito’s whitepaper explains all the token dynamics in its new system. Essentially, it set an extremely ambitious goal: using artificial intelligence to quantify the value of social media posts and tokenize them. Kaito’s AI will assess user posts for output, engagement, insight, and more, and users will earn yaps. These yaps will determine future airdrops, but the full tokenomics aren’t out yet.

Kaito’s token airdrop has generated a lot of positive buzz, with some calling it “the most significant social token distribution we’ve ever seen in crypto.” The firm’s own data has suggested that AI protocols are losing influence, but its own airdrop may be an exception. The crypto community has long searched for a way to revolutionize social media, and Kaito has entered the game.

However, there are many challenges. Kaito isn’t the only tech company trying to increase content quality in the Era of AI; the world’s biggest tech companies also want to increase the quality of posted content. Kaito wants to use token rewards to incentivize thoughtful and well-connected discussions, but the whitepaper doesn’t clearly explain how it would accomplish this.

Meanwhile, social media is already crawling with users giving their best advice on optimizing KAITO token rewards. Some of these posts apparently have good intentions, but other large accounts have already been cynical:

“When KAITO launches, just know: if you never earned a yap, you’ll feel like your account was useless. So tweet, X, Yap, replyguy, do whatever it takes to earn yaps. Make tweets that make them reply to you. Make content that makes smart followers comment on it. Go to the leaderboard, follow top emerging yappers,” one user told his followers.

In other words, the plan to monetize good content may only encourage further bad actors. Kaito’s AI faces a very difficult challenge: how can it objectively assess novelty and insight and reward tokens based on that assessment? The protocol’s success will hinge on its ability to deliver here. Whatever might happen, however, the whole community is watching.