A federal judge in Argentina has ordered the freezing of dozens of crypto wallets linked to the LIBRA investigation and directed six exchanges to hand over customer KYC data. Judge Marcelo Martínez De Giorgi issued the ruling after prosecutor Eduardo Taiano requested the measure on July 14, based on a Federal Police cybercrime report. The order covers Binance, Bybit, OKX, CoinEx, FixedFloat, and Bitfinex — a broad sweep that signals the investigation is moving from tracking funds to identifying the people behind them.
The LIBRA collapse and the Milei connection
The case stems from the February 2025 launch of the Solana-based LIBRA token. President Javier Milei promoted the token on his X account on February 14, 2025, posting about it and then deleting the post hours later. The token's price rocketed from $0.01 to nearly $5 before crashing back down within hours. Prosecutors say a small cluster of wallets withdrew roughly $100 million, while more than 40,000 buyers were left holding worthless tokens.
Prosecutors believe Mauricio Novelli, Manuel Terrones Godoy, and US businessman Hayden Davis orchestrated the scheme. An alleged $5 million contract for the presidential promotion exists, but Milei denies any knowledge or involvement. The investigation describes a 'digital smurfing or structuring strategy' — funds were broken into small amounts and moved daily to multiple wallets linked to centralized exchanges, making them harder to trace.
What the judge ordered
At least 25 accounts have been frozen so far, though the ruling refers to 'dozens' of wallets. The six exchanges must now provide KYC data for those accounts. The judge also removed all five investor plaintiffs at Novelli's defense request, leaving prosecutor Taiano to advance the case alone. That procedural move could speed things up — or it could leave the case more vulnerable if the prosecutor's office lacks resources.
The Federal Police cybercrime report traced funds from Team Libra wallets to the exchanges via Jup.ag, FixedFloat, and deBridge Finance. That trail is what led to the current order.
Political fallout and conflict of interest questions
Opposition lawmakers were quick to link the ruling to the Senate's approval of the judge's wife's nomination to the federal bench — a nomination submitted by Milei. The timing isn't great for the president, who already faces scrutiny over his role in promoting the token. Whether the judge's order is a genuine step in the investigation or a political maneuver is now a live question in Buenos Aires.
The LIBRA collapse has drawn comparisons to the TRUMP token, where meme coin retail losses hit $3.81 billion across nearly 1 million wallets. For now, prosecutor Taiano is the only one pushing the case forward. The next concrete step will be whether the exchanges comply with the KYC order and what names surface from the data.
