An Argentine court has frozen 25 wallets in the LIBRA case: exchanges are required to disclose data.
Federal Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi has issued a ruling to freeze 25 cryptocurrency wallets directly linked to the scandalous LIBRA token. The court also ordered six international exchanges to provide full data on the owners of these addresses and the complete history of all transactions.
This ruling is a direct response to a request from prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, who relied on a technical report from the cybercrime division of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA). The measures are preventive in nature and aim to prevent the withdrawal or concealment of assets that may constitute proceeds from criminal activity.
Which exchanges are in the crosshairs?
The list of affected platforms is impressive: ten addresses on Binance, eight on Bybit, two on OKX, two on CoinEx, one on FixedFloat, and two on Bitfinex. The judge has demanded a complete set of KYC-standard documents from each exchange, including internal records, IP address logs, associated bank accounts, and, most importantly, the full history of fund movements.
The main reason for such stringent measures is the lack of a clear cryptocurrency regulator in Argentina. As emphasized in the ruling, this is necessary to avoid damage that would subsequently be impossible to compensate. Essentially, the court is attempting to create a precedent where crypto exchanges act not just as platforms, but as full-fledged financial institutions obligated to cooperate with the justice system.
The mechanics of the scandal: from rise to fall
A key role in the investigation was played by the technical report from the PFA. Specialists reconstructed the chain of fund movements using reverse tracing and open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis. Assets flowed out of a group of wallets called Team Libra Wallets. On February 14-15, 2025, millions of tokens were transferred from there, which then ended up in a common intermediate wallet.
Next, the investigation recorded a major withdrawal: on May 10, 2026, 498,539.85 USDT arrived at a wallet on the Tron network via a compatibility protocol. The operation was completed in just 16 seconds, bypassing traditional exchanges. After that, a smurfing scheme was launched—daily fragmentation of amounts and their distribution across numerous wallets to complicate tracking.
It all began with a post by President Milei on social network X on February 14, 2025. The token's price skyrocketed from $0.01 to nearly $5 within hours, then collapsed amid sales by the project's creators. According to investigation data, over 40,000 people were affected, and the fund outflow reached approximately $100 million.
Among the accused are lobbyist Mauricio Novelli, his partner, and American Hayden Davis.
Expert opinion from Cryptalist: This case is a vivid example of how the lack of clear regulation and blind faith in "hype" from public figures can lead to catastrophic consequences. The Argentine court's ruling creates an important precedent: exchanges can no longer remain on the sidelines when it comes to returning funds to affected investors. Smurfing and fast cross-chain transfers are standard tools for criminals, but modern forensics, as we can see, is capable of neutralizing them.