Argentine judge orders freeze of 25 crypto wallets in $LIBRA probe

Argentine court has ordered the identification of holders behind 25 cryptocurrency wallets and frozen assets linked to the $LIBRA token investigation after authorities traced millions of dollars across multiple blockchain networks.

According to Argentine newspaper Clarín, 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. 

The order seeks account holder identities, know-your-customer records, IP addresses, transaction histories, and other information that could identify those behind the transactions.

The latest measure centers on 25 wallets believed to have handled part of the money left with the creators of the $LIBRA token following its failed launch in February 2025. The judge also instructed authorities to freeze assets associated with those wallets, although it remains unclear whether the funds are still held there or have already been transferred elsewhere.

Court documents reviewed by the publication reconstructed the activity of eight wallets identified as the “Libra Team,” which investigators linked to the token’s creation and the withdrawal of investor funds after Argentine President Javier Milei promoted the project on social media. During that period, the token’s price briefly surged before collapsing within minutes.

According to the report, token creator Hayden Davis previously said roughly $110 million remained under his control after the launch. Investigators found that four of the eight Libra Team wallets consolidated funds into a single wallet identified as “61yk.”

Investigators trace funds through exchanges

The police report stated that wallet “61yk” had remained frozen for nearly six months under an order from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which is handling a separate case involving 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 to make the transactions harder to follow or eventually convert into fiat currency.

Authorities 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 in what investigators described as another attempt to obscure the trail.

The Federal Police report found that at least 10 of those transactions passed through Binance, while eight wallets were linked to Bybit, two to OKX, and another two to Bitfinex. Because centralized exchanges generally require customer identity verification, investigators believe those transfers could help identify some of the individuals involved, although the report noted that some platforms may not hold KYC information for every account.

Crypto analyst Fernando Molina, who has independently tracked the movement of $LIBRA funds, previously estimated that about $8.2 million remained dormant before becoming active again in May through wallets now under judicial scrutiny. 

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. Earlier reports said the trust had already received 71 grant applications.