Key Takeaways
A federal judge in Argentina ordered the identification and freezing of 25 cryptocurrency wallets tied to the LIBRA memecoin collapse, exposing the gap between judicial orders and on-chain enforcement.
Argentine Federal Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi issued the order after reviewing a report from the Cybercrime Technical Department of the Argentine Federal Police, which reconstructed the movement of crypto assets linked to the LIBRA case from May onward, according to Clarín. The judge directed Binance, Bybit, OKX and Bitfinex to hand over KYC records, IP addresses and transaction histories for the targeted wallets.
"While the court order is a significant step, the directive remains a request that has not yet been acted on by the exchanges," Fernando Molina, a crypto analyst who independently mapped the LIBRA money trail, said on X. Molina confirmed as of July 14 that no funds have been frozen.
The police report traced a major movement on May 10, when 498,539 USDT was transferred through a cross-chain interoperability protocol to a wallet on the Tron network. The receiving wallet then split the funds into 17 separate transactions — a layering technique designed to obscure the trail. At least 10 of those transactions passed through Binance, while eight wallets were linked to Bybit, two to OKX and two to Bitfinex.
The $8.2 Million Dormant Pool
Molina had previously reconstructed that roughly $8.2 million sat idle in these wallets before activity resumed in May. The sudden movement of those funds — after months of dormancy — attracted renewed scrutiny from both Argentine authorities and on-chain researchers. Because centralized exchanges require identity verification, investigators believe those transfers could help identify some of the individuals involved, though the report noted that some platforms may not hold KYC information for every account.
Cross-Border Coordination With US Authorities
The Argentine investigation does not exist in isolation. The police report traced four of eight "Libra Team" wallets to a single wallet identified as "61yk," which had already been frozen for nearly six months at the request of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York — the same office investigating LIBRA token creator Hayden Davis. After the restriction was lifted, investigators alleged the wallet redistributed funds using what the report described as a "digital smurfing" strategy, breaking larger balances into smaller transfers.
Davis previously said roughly $110 million remained under his control after the token's launch. Separate information reviewed by Clarín indicates that the remaining funds are managed through a trust established by Davis, which is intended to distribute grants to Argentine companies as part of a proposed revival of the project before the end of the year. The trust had already received 71 grant applications.
The LIBRA token collapsed in early 2025, within minutes of Argentine President Javier Milei publicly promoting it. The speed of the collapse — and the pattern of wallet activity that followed — has been at the center of the Argentine investigation. The current freeze order reveals the structural tension at the heart of crypto enforcement: the blockchain records everything, but stopping funds requires the cooperation of private companies operating across multiple jurisdictions. Until Binance, Bybit, OKX and Bitfinex actually respond, the money remains in limbo.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
