The memecoin market saw a 5% boost in overall market cap not long after a prosecutor said he wants to freeze $110 million as part of an investigation into the LIBRA meme coin scandal.
On March 6, the overall market cap for memecoins nearly reached $62 million, surging by 5% in the past 24 hours of trading. Among the top traded tokens, FARTCOIN (FARTCOIN) rose by nearly 27% to a price of $0.35 while the official Trump coin (TRUMP) went up by 2.3%. TRUMP is currently trading hands at $13.70.
The meme coin market went through a major slump following a series of “presidential meme coin” drops, starting from the official TRUMP meme coin to the LIBRA meme coin endorsed by Argentinian President Javier Milei. It seems the market is recovering slowly from the crash.
More recently, an Argentine federal prosecutor Eduardo Taiano told media outlets that he was intent on freezing around $110 million in assets as part of an ongoing investigation into the Argentinian President’s involvement in the collapse of the LIBRA meme coin, according to local media outlet Clarin.
Not only that, the prosecutor has also submitted a request to access to President Milei’s deleted social media posts, specifically the ones which indicated he allegedly promoted the Solana (SOL) -based memecoin.
As part of the the probe, authorities would be able to freeze funds in digital wallets linked to the meme coin scandal. On-chain data shows that there were at least eight wallets linked to the LIBRA team which made a profit of $107 million before the token’s eventual downfall.
Recently, funds amounting to $4.5 million were moved from one of the wallets to a new digital address. It was later reportedly used to purchase the POPE meme coin, which could indicate possible money laundering efforts. The POPE meme coin is currently trading hands at $0.18.
What is the LIBRA meme coin scandal?
The scandal was dubbed “Libragate” by traders and has led to Argentinians calling for the impeachment of President Javier Milei. It started when Milei shared a post on his social media account on Feb. 15 at 5:01 EST, promoting a token that he claimed would help boost the “Argentine economy by funding small projects.”
However, the memecoin crashed not long after its launch, wiping out $4.4 billion in market capitalization thus affecting the overall meme coin market. According to a Nansen report, between Feb. 14 until Feb. 18, around 86% of LIBRA traders suffered losses amounting to $251 million.
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