Argentine court freezes 25 wallets in LIBRA case: beginning of large-scale investigation
A federal court in Argentina has made an unprecedented decision in the investigation of the scandalous LIBRA token. 25 crypto wallets have been seized, and six international exchanges have been ordered to disclose full owner data and the history of all transactions. This is the first such large-scale step in a case that could become a landmark for the entire industry.
The ruling was issued by Judge Marcelo Martinez de Giorgi at the request of prosecutor Eduardo Taiano. The basis was a technical report from the cybercrime division of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA), which apparently revealed a complex scheme of fund movements.
The measures affected wallets on six platforms: ten addresses on Binance, eight on Bybit, two on OKX, two on CoinEx, one on FixedFloat, and two on Bitfinex. Each exchange has been ordered to provide a complete client dossier, including KYC documents, internal records, IP addresses, associated bank accounts, and the entire transaction history. The court cited the lack of a cryptocurrency regulator in the country as the reason for such harsh measures, making future compensation for damages impossible.
Technical Analysis and the "Smurfing" Scheme
A key role in the case was played by a technical report that reconstructed the movement of funds using reverse tracing and open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis. Assets flowed out of a group of wallets called Team Libra Wallets. Between February 14 and 15, 2025, millions of tokens were transferred from them, which then ended up in a common intermediate wallet.
Subsequently, the investigation recorded a large withdrawal of funds. On May 10, 2026, 498,539.85 USDT were received into a wallet on the Tron network via a compatibility protocol, with the transaction completed in just 16 seconds without the involvement of a traditional exchange. After that, a fund fragmentation scheme was launched — so-called smurfing, the daily distribution of fragmented amounts across numerous wallets to hinder tracking.
Investor Tragedy and Key Figures
It all began with a post by President Milei on social media platform X on February 14, 2025. Following this, the token's price skyrocketed from $0.01 to nearly $5 within hours, then collapsed amid sales by the project's creators. Over 40,000 people were affected. The investigation claims that the fund outflow reached approximately $100 million. Among the accused are lobbyist Mauricio Novelli, his partner, and American citizen Hayden Davis.
My comment: This case is a stark example of how regulatory uncertainty combined with social influence can lead to catastrophic consequences for retail investors. The freezing of 25 wallets is just the tip of the iceberg. The real battle will be over the recovery of assets, which are likely already deeply entangled in a network of mixers and decentralized protocols. The success of this case will depend on the authorities' ability to cooperate with exchanges worldwide, which, under current geopolitical conditions, is a challenging task.