One of the more surprising developments in the cryptocurrency market as of late has to do with mainstream appeal and support. However, we’re not referring to adoption in this instance — rather, we’re talking about public figures — chiefly politicians, promoting specific digital assets.
Late December saw the first time a sitting U.S. congressman purchased a meme coin. Then, in January, this new phenomenon culminated with President Trump and the first lady’s launch of their respective tokens.
In a similar yet slightly different situation, the controversial President of Argentina, Javier Milei, promoted a cryptocurrency, Libra (LIBRA). In a now-deleted post on social media platform X, Milei backed Libra as a private initiative with the goal of revitalizing Argentina’s economy.
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The market cap of the token surged past $4.4 billion — only to subsequently collapse in what is increasingly looking like a coordinated rug pull. Mileni is now facing an investigation and calls for impeachment due to the entire affair.
One particular trader invested in LIBRA just minutes after it was launched — however, he failed to sell at an opportune time and incurred significant losses — only to then be ‘bailed out’ by Libra’s founder, Hayden Davis. The trader in question is Dave Portnoy — founder of Barstool Sports.
Dave Portnoy paid to promote and then reimbursed for LIBRA
Launched on February 15, LIBRA saw a rapid increase in price from approximately $0.13 to as high as $4.5 in the early hours of the day, equating to a 3361.53% surge. Portnoy’s wallet, created a day easier, first received 29,000 Solana (SOL), worth roughly $5.76 million at the time.
The first purchases started some 9 minutes after LIBRA had sent online — by which time, the cryptocurrency’s price had already soared to $1.75. In total, Portnoy spent 28,740 SOL, worth some $5.77 million at the time, to purchase 2.3 million LIBRA at an average price of $2.51 apiece.
After hitting its all-time high of $4.56, the price of Libra began to plummet — within an hour and a half, LIBRA was down to $0.90 — a loss of 80.26%.
Portnoy’s wallet subsequently received a 4.5 million USD Coin (USDC) payment. Then, all of the LIBRA on the address was sold for 2,163 Solana, worth just $430,000. With the sale concluded, Portnoy received another 500,000 USDC. In addition, the address in question received 650,000 LIBRA from the project’s team, but it was quickly returned.
Later, Portnoy admitted to the entire affair — and added that he ‘could care less that people know Hayden paid me back’ in a February 17 X post.
In addition, the post contains screenshots of a text message exchange between Davis and Portnoy — in which Davis first asks Portnoy not to disclose that he was paid back, and then claims that the money in question was his personal ownership, not that of the project.
Featured image via Shutterstock
