Argentine justice has taken decisive measures in the investigation of the high-profile LIBRA token case. Federal Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi, at the request of prosecutor Eduardo Taiano, ordered the freezing of 25 cryptocurrency wallets directly linked to this project. Simultaneously, the court sent official requests to six leading international exchanges demanding complete data on the owners of these accounts and a detailed history of all transactions.
Exchanges in the Crosshairs: Who Made the List?
The investigation determined that the frozen assets are distributed across several trading platforms. This involves ten addresses on Binance, eight on Bybit, two on OKX, two on CoinEx, one on FixedFloat, and two on Bitfinex. From each of these exchanges, the judge demanded the full KYC data package: documents provided during registration, internal records, IP addresses, associated bank accounts, and a comprehensive transaction history.
The reason for such stringent measures was the lack of a clear cryptocurrency market regulator in Argentina. The court ruling emphasizes that this is necessary to prevent the impossibility of future damage compensation. The key task is to prevent the transfer or concealment of assets that may constitute proceeds from criminal activity and to ensure their potential recovery. The court specifically noted the preventive nature of this decision, stating that the freeze should stop possible new crimes during the investigation.
Technical Report and the "Smurfing" Scheme
A key role in the case was played by the technical report from the cybercrime division of the Argentine Federal Police (PFA). Using backward tracing and open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis, experts were able to reconstruct the complete picture of fund movements. Assets were leaving a group of wallets called Team Libra Wallets. On 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 arrived in a wallet on the Tron network via a compatibility protocol. Notably, the transaction was completed in just 16 seconds without the involvement of a traditional exchange. After that, a fund fragmentation scheme—the so-called "smurfing"—was launched: the daily distribution of fragmented amounts across numerous wallets to hinder their tracking.
As a reminder, it all began with a post by President Milei on social network X on February 14, 2025. Following this, the token's price skyrocketed from $0.01 to nearly $5 in a matter of hours, then collapsed amid sales by the project's creators. Over 40,000 people were affected. According to the investigation, the fund withdrawal reached approximately $100 million, and among the accused are lobbyist Mauricio Novelli, his partner, and American Hayden Davis.
Analyst's Comment: This case is a stark example of how the lack of clear regulation and the "authority effect" can lead to massive financial losses. The actions of the Argentine court demonstrate that even in a regulatory vacuum, law enforcement agencies can effectively use blockchain analytics tools. Investors should learn the main lesson: any coin promoted by public figures without a transparent roadmap and audit is highly likely to be a Pump and Dump scheme.