UPDATE: Did Hayden Davis & Ben Chow Rug $LIBRA?

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Alpha Team
February 17, 2025

🚨 Hayden Davis & Libra Scandal Deepens

Davis Admits Sniping Libra: Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Ventures, admitted his team sniped Libra’s launch, controlling wallets holding over $100M. He claimed this was done to "protect" the project from other snipers, but critics say it was a coordinated insider move. Libra launched after Argentina’s President Javier Milei promoted it, sending the token's valuation to billions before crashing in hours when Milei distanced himself. In a Coffeezilla interview, Davis defended insider sniping as common practice in memecoins, revealing that crypto influencers had early access before the public.

Ben Chow Resigns After Market Manipulation Claims: Meteora co-founder Ben Chow has resigned following allegations of market manipulation involving Libra and Melania tokens. Moty, founder of DefiTuna, accused Chow of enabling a network of influencers to profit before launches, particularly through the M3M3 platform. Screenshots suggest that millions were siphoned from retail investors, with Davis and his team deciding when to dump tokens. Moty alleged that attempts to establish neutral liquidity for Libra were ignored, and insiders deliberately controlled trading volume to maximize extractions at the expense of regular investors.

Fraud Complaints Filed Against President Milei: Following the scandal, Argentine lawyers have filed fraud complaints against President Milei, questioning his indirect involvement in Libra. While Davis insists he was only a “facilitator” of the project, Coffeezilla labeled him one of Libra’s "big four" creators. The investigation also connects Davis to the Melania token launch, where insiders were given early access to 1% of the supply, worth $100M at peak, before it was anonymously dumped. As authorities and the crypto community demand accountability, the full extent of this market manipulation is still unfolding. Read More.

️ On today's Top Picks:

  1. 📉 Digital Assets saw $415M of outflows last week.
  2. 📸 Kaito snapshots $KAITO Yaps on February 17th.
  3. 🚀 Monad to launch testnet on February 19th.
  4. 🔎 Linea identifies 3.5k false positives in review of sybil appeals.

Read time: ⏰ 5 minutes


Crypto News


• ⭐️ Hayden Davis, Kelsier Ventures CEO, and Ben Chow, Meteora Co-founder, gain attention due to their involvement in $LIBRA; Argentine lawyers file fraud complaints against President Javier Milei.

• Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) dismisses rumors that Binance is for sale; says Binance could sell a minority stake in the company over time in the single-digit percentage range.

• Anonymous user burns ~$1.6M of Ethereum $ETH and donates ~$1.9M of ETH to WikiLeaks; leaves cryptic messages about mind control and militarized “nano-brain-computer chips".

• ⭐️ Digital Asset Investment Products saw $415M of outflows last week; follows 19-week inflow streak of $29.4B.

• Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, & Hong Kong Telecommunications form joint venture to launch Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin; to apply for license from Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

• Binance to delist AirDAO $AMB, CLV $CLV, StormX $STMX, and VITE $VITE on February 24th; no longer meets standard and industry requirements.

Alpha


• ⭐️ Kaito snapshots $KAITO Yaps on February 17th at 0400 AM UTC; to snapshot Kaito Genesis NFTs on February 18th at 0400 AM UTC.

• ⭐️ Monad to launch testnet on February 19th; mainnet to potentially launch in Q2 2025.

• Mint launches $MINT NFT Legends Box unboxing; ends on February 28th.

• DeBank launches 365 VIP Active Days Web3 Badge; users with 365 VIP active days are eligible to mint.

Airdrops


• Weekly Airdrop Recap by Earndrop.

• Triad Airdrop Strategy by Earndrop.

• ⭐️ Linea completes review of sybil appeals; identifies 3.5k false positives which have been removed from the sybil list.

• Skate introduces $SKATE; 12% of supply allocated for initial community distribution; 1% allocated for Kaito yappers.

• Trump memecoin to launch $TRUMP airdrop; official Trump product purchasers are eligible.

Finance News


• CalSTRS Pension Fund reports $83M of Strategy $MSTR holdings; holds 258,785 MSTR shares as of December 31st, 2024. 

• MetaPlanet $3350.T buys 269.43 Bitcoin $BTC worth ~$26M, holds 2,031.41 BTC worth ~$194M.

• Blockchain[.]com takes steps toward potential initial public offering; appoints Justin Evans as CFO and Mike Wilcox as COO.

• Tether signs Memorandum of Understanding with the Republic of Guinea; aims to "explore blockchain and peer-to-peer technologies, the possibility of driving economic growth..."

Security and Exploits


• South Korea blocks DeepSeek app from local app stores; South Korea PIPC says it will be available again once it complies with Korean privacy laws and makes necessary changes.

• Revoke[.]cash adds support for Unichain mainnet.

• Google Chrome updates Enhanced Protection feature with "Real-time, AI-powered protection"; unclear how the feature is different from older version.

Token Unlocks


• Immutable $IMX / ~$20M / FEB 21st
Sourced from Tokenomist


Funding


• Hedgemony raises an undisclosed amount in Pre-Seed funding from several investors.

• Bluefin raises an undisclosed amount in funding from Beam.

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That’s it for today’s edition! See you soon.

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