Live data from Hacker News

Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

coindesk.com

81–90 of 383 posts

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Trump (or whoever) goes on social media to promote Bitcoin, it'll probably pump 5%-10%. And if it falls, it'll fall roughly back down to where it was. If he goes on to promote some unknown shitcoin, said coin could easily pump 1000%, and fall harder.

He did a rugpull in a shitcoin right before his inauguration and likely pulled megaprofit out of some bag holders. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/trumps-meme-coin-... Any other administration this would have been a huge scandal but when we're in an avalanche of corruption I guess it can be missed.

I think the point was that it gave his supporters a quasi-legal way to donate money while skirting campaign finance regulation, making the trumpcoin itself not so much a unit of currency as a receipt - a proof of loyalty.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#82
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get the point you're trying to make?

That legitimate stores of value are typically not that simple to manipulate.

You are equating legitimacy with liquidity, and the that isn't necessarily true.

Liquidity is necessary, and a good marker, but not sufficient.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#83
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The likes of Bitcoin or Ethereum aren't really "memes" in the modern sense, at least no more than any fiat currency is.

Ordinary currencies have value due to the enormous debt in it. If people fail to obtain units of the currency, they default on obligations that have much greater value than the value of the all the cash in the currency. Thus in an ordinary currency the incentive isn't to ignore it, or to sell, but to hoard it so that people can't obtain the money to pay their loans in order to create a crisis so that they can obtain…

Most people don't realize that governments can't just "print" currencies and the few that do (ie: Turkey, Argentina, etc...) have chronic hyperinflation. The US went a bit loose with supply and it already came back biting and still to this day struggling with the higher interest.

The government does constantly devalue the currency, though. It does it at an imperceptible pace to not scare the chickens and make business viable. But that's the most they can collect from this system. Anything more and they blow the whole monetary system away.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#84

Surely all cryptocurrencies are memecoins. There's very little debt in these things, so that it isn't a source of value, and there are many popular systems, from Bitcoin to Ethereum, so isn't any that can be said to be somehow special.

Bitcoin really is different. It's a commodity rather than a security, and proof of work consensus is essential for its use case.

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#85
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I really appreciate your comment. I'm being totally sincere. I did see the news reports about him with a chainsaw. He seemed like a nut when I saw that. And I then watched the Lex Friedman interview and read the profile in the New Yorker. I was surprised in that my initial glance at him was not positive but my opinions shifted. Please give me other nuanced and intelligent discussions. I'm sorry I missed the ones you…

Check out some of the reporting from before the election https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2023/09/07/meet-javie...

Look at some of the actual details around his wish list, the fantasy of dollarization is a favorite of mine https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2023-11-24/d...

Compare what's promised to what actually occurs. Did he attack the privileged, were the poor lifted out of poverty, has free enterprise restored a moribund economy? https://www.npr.org/2025/02/09/nx-s1-5280631/argentinas-rece...

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this is horribly embarassing He made a mistake and backtracked instead of instinctively doubling down. Count your blessings.

He met with the founder of this thing several times. They lowered the age allowable for trading to 13 years and up right around the time he met with these people. The con wouldn’t have worked without him spreading it. Multiple of his closest allies immediately replied that this was not a mistake. The man as in an irredeemable narcissistic moron. We’ve had this conversation several times with the same conclusion over…

Ridiculous! His closest advisor, Conan, endorsed the era of treats and prosperity it would bring to all Argentinians!

[to boil the frog for others, he's claimed his dogs (Conan) are his closest advisors]

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#87
post #17

Christ, why is it just ok for politicians to outright create and promote Ponzi and Pump 'n Dump schemes? It doesn't seem that long ago that this would have been a scandal but now with the moron in the Oval Office creating his own meme coins without even trying to hide his business interests, and now the president of Argentina is doing the same shit? Is this really the world that we want? I mean, I guess the answer is…

Fraud runs rampant before large market collapses. https://www.history.com/news/roaring-twenties-scams-ponzi-wa... It happened in the 20s, before 2008, and it's happening again. Trump doing this is an extra level of depraved, and I suspect the coming crash will follow suit.

It makes me wonder if I should pull my savings out of index funds and just keep cash in a savings account in the short term.

Normally I'd buy treasury bills, but honestly considering that Elon has been fucking around with the treasury's code with no oversight, and considering that Trump's big strategy for eliminating national debt has been to "declare bankruptcy" (whatever that would even means in regards to an entire country that is the world's reserve currency?), I'm hesitant to even do that.

I wonder if I should look into seeing if I can buy bonds for the EU equivalent of the US treasury...

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#88
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point 2 is the basis for a pyramid scheme.

Pyramid schemes are illegal, but Multi-Level-Marketing schemes are legal. And you don't need multiple levels. You can have one level. That's called affiliate marketing. Loyalty points are a thing. You can earn them as an affiliate, for instance. It doesn't have to be a pyramid. But if you are going that route, almost all startups are "pyramid schemes" that end up with an IPO where the public continues to demand rents…

[deleted]

Re: Javier Milei backtracks on $4.4B memecoin after 'insiders' pocket $87M

#90
post #84

Surely all cryptocurrencies are memecoins. There's very little debt in these things, so that it isn't a source of value, and there are many popular systems, from Bitcoin to Ethereum, so isn't any that can be said to be somehow special.

Bitcoin really is different. It's a commodity rather than a security, and proof of work consensus is essential for its use case.

Dollars ultimately have value because the United States government collects taxes in dollars. Who demands Bitcoin, except speculators? It's value is entirely propped up by it's cultural expectation - meme value - with no tether to a real source of demand for BTC.
Post reply on HN