Argentine Judge Orders Urgent Freeze of Crypto Wallets Tied to Controversial Libra Token
The Libra case, which investigates the launch and subsequent movement of funds allocated through controversial token sales, has reached new developments in Argentina. Federal Judge Marcelo Martinez has ordered the identification and freezing of a set of wallets linked to Libra after receiving a report from the Federal Police’s Cybercrime Technical Department.
The move scrutinizes eight wallets labeled as “Libra team,” which had direct involvement in the token launch after Argentina’s President Javier Milei promoted it on social media. The report recorded the movements of these wallets, with four consolidating nearly $57 million into an address that was blocked and released by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, after it determined that the funds were no longer at risk of dissipation.
The referenced wallet allegedly mixed funds using several other wallets. On May 10, there was a massive fund movement that funneled nearly 500K through an interoperability protocol into a Tron address. This wallet also tried to obfuscate its transactions, but out of 17 movements executed, at least 10 passed through Binance. Similarly, eight wallets are linked to Bybit, two to OKX, and two to Bitfinex.
This would, in theory, help identify the users linked to these $8.2 million, as most centralized exchanges comply with know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. Nonetheless, others might not be identifiable, as some institutions don’t require customer identification for these operations.
The remaining funds are now managed by a so-called Libra Trust, which aims to distribute them to Argentine companies through grants before November, with 71 applications already pending approval to receive these benefits.