Insider Trading Exposed: How High-Frequency Traders Pocket Millions in LIBRAs Short-Lived Boom

The LIBRA token, promoted by Argentinian President Javier Milei, launched on February 14, 2025, and quickly reached a $4.5 billion valuation before crashing. Algorithmic and high-frequency traders were among the early buyers. After Milei deleted his endorsement and distanced himself from the project, the token price dropped 80%. Out of the wallets that saw gains or losses over $1,000, 86.07% lost a total of $251 million, while 2,101 wallets profited about $180 million. Some wallets showed signs of insider trading, with two making $5.4 million in profit during the initial surge. One wallet, HyzGo2, was particularly successful. Another wallet, XRfKhaCA, lost $407,000. Other wallets connected to prominent traders profited from similar tokens like TRUMP and MELANIA. Despite the crash, trading continued, and a price surge occurred on February 17th after Milei commented on the token's accessibility, but most traders still saw losses. Around 1,001 wallets held LIBRA with unrealized losses of $11 million, compared to 71 wallets with unrealized gains of $0.54 million. One whale lost $2.65 million on LIBRA after initially spending $3.25 million. The same whale had previously lost $1.76 million on LIBRA. Another trader profited $7.32 million from TRUMP but lost $617,000 on MELANIA and $1.76 million on LIBRA. Binance founder CZ donated $100,000 to affected users, which was matched by the creators of the "Broccoli" token. One trader reportedly made $6.5 million from the LIBRA volatility, while another potentially made $25 million, although that figure includes transfers to multiple wallets, some of which lost money. Solana's total value locked dropped from $12.1 billion to $8.29 billion during this period.