Politicians brawl before Milei’s LIBRA impeachment proceedings

2025年03月14日

Argentinian politicians brawled at a parliamentary session covering President Javier Milei’s LIBRA scandal that ended abruptly before a vote could take place on his impeachment. 

Local media reports that the fight broke out between Lisandro Almirón (part of the ruling La Libertad party) and Oscar Zago (part of the Integration and Development Movement). 

Almiron reportedly began heckling Zago, calling him a traitor, before Zago began punching Almiron. Deputy Rocío Bonacci, (from the UNITE party) also threw a glass of water at Lilia Lemoin (representing La Libertad) as members pressured peers to leave their seats. 

Opposition leader Maximiliano Ferraro has since demanded an investigation into Wednesday’s breakdown, claiming members of the La Libertad party tried to “coerce” and “intimidate” members into leaving their seats and breaking the quorum of the proceedings.

Opposition member Tomás Ledesma shared this footage of the fight.

Read more: Lawyer wants Hayden Davis arrested, says Milei’s sister is LIBRA “mastermind”

Local publisher Buenos Aires Herald reports that the session was supposed to debate various bills focused on Milei’s LIBRA scandal, including forming a commission to investigate the affair, and impeachment proceedings. 

The session was about to vote on instructing an impeachment commission to begin proceedings before the altercation broke out, resulting in Martín Menem, the House of Representatives Speaker, ending the session.

Prosecutors already began investigating Milei and his associates, including LIBRA co-creator Hayden Davis, last February after launching a lawsuit. Attorneys have also asked the courts to seek an Interpol red notice for Hayden Davis that may lead to his arrest and extradition.

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El Salvador gets its bitcoin from Bitfinex, raising control concerns

2025年03月14日

After tracing the bitcoin listed on El Salvador’s sovereign balance sheet, some researchers wonder if Bitfinex – rather than Nayib Bukele’s administration – controls these coins. According to a newspaper report today from Fabricio Altamirano’s El Diario de Hoy, reblogged on sister website ElSalvador.com, nearly 100% of El Salvador’s bitcoin reserves originate from Bitfinex.

The contentious print and web investigation cites a researcher, Mario Gómez, who further speculates that Bitfinex is aiding Bukele in faking ownership of bitcoin that is in fact donated, loaned, or otherwise controlled by Bitfinex.

Protos has been unable to independently verify these extraordinary claims.

Who controls El Salvador’s 6,114 bitcoin?

Bukele’s administration hosts an official website claiming that the government owns 6,114.18 bitcoin. That figure matches third-party estimates at Nayib Tracker.

These disclosure portals are limited in what they reveal, showing the balance in a specific address. Whether the coins are in the wallets is far less interesting than where they come from, whether they are encumbered, and who possesses their private keys.

Digging into the history of the coins that landed in that wallet, researchers claim that 80% of these bitcoin originated from Bitfinex-controlled wallets – and that the remaining 20% were transferred through Chivo Wallet yet ultimately derived from Bitfinex-controlled wallets. There was additionally a de minimis amount that seemed to come from Binance.

El Salvador’s close ties with Bitfinex, and Tether

As Protos previously reported, it is common knowledge that Bukele’s administration has numerous business and financial ties with Bitfinex and its sister stablecoin, Tether.

The government has used Bitfinex for its now-terminated bitcoin dollar cost averaging purchases, as well as for the lion’s share of the original purchases. Tether and Bitfinex entities have also received digital asset service provider licenses in El Salvador and have facilitated offerings like Bitcoin bonds, Volcano Energy financing, crypto derivatives, and tokenized securities.

Tether even moved its headquarters to El Salvador. Executives Paolo Ardoino, Claudia Lagorio, and Giancarlo Devasini have bought real estate in the country.

Today’s reporting suggests a larger than previously known number of El Salvador’s bitcoins came from Bitfinex. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement recently signed by the Bukele administration may reveal any problems with the Salvadoran bitcoin.

IMF wants to doxx Chivo wallets, BTC balances of El Salvador state users

Read more: IMF approves El Salvador’s $1.4B loan but imposes bitcoin restrictions

As part of a $1.4 billion deal with the IMF, Bukele has promised to provide extensive details about his bitcoin purchases. He has also revoked its status as legal currency and committed to curtailing further purchases. For now, investigative journalists can only speculate as to the encumbrances and funding sources for El Salvador’s 6,114.18 state bitcoin.

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Binance wants a Trump partnership and a pardon for CZ, report

2025年03月13日

At 9am today, five Wall Street Journal journalists published a claim that Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is seeking a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. Their reporting acknowledges CZ’s completion of a four-month prison sentence and claims that unnamed sources familiar with the matter believe CZ has pushed forward with his request despite already serving a sentence.

Although the reporters do not speculate on other misdeeds, a US president has the sole authority to preemptively pardon for crimes for which an individual does not yet have a conviction. Per Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the US Constitution and Supreme Court precedent in Ex parte Garland (1867), the president wields “unlimited” pardoning power applicable to “every offence known to the law,” even “before legal proceedings are taken.”

In addition, Wall Street Journal reporters claim that Binance wants the Trump family or one of its entities, like World Liberty Financial, to invest in Binance. As part of their negotiations, Binance has expressed willingness to move substantial operations into the US.

Binance founder CZ made $12B overnight when Donald Trump won

Read more: Binance founder CZ made over $25 million per day while in prison, report

Within the first hour of the article’s publication, neither CZ nor Binance leaders Yi He or Richard Teng have responded publicly to the rumor of the pardon request.

Onshoring the world’s largest crypto exchange to the US?

Trump has been a vocal advocate for foreign companies relocating offices, plants, and personnel into the US. He has implemented many tariffs on foreign-operated companies and has made onshoring a cornerstone of his administration’s trade policies.

Interestingly, the US government already holds approximately $33 million worth of Binance Chain (BNB) coins. Per a recent Executive Order signed by Trump, those coins may now be part of a newly-formed US Digital Asset Stockpile.

Yesterday, Binance announced crypto’s $2 billion equity investment from Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund MGX. Founder CZ boasted that it was the largest crypto-denominated equity investment in history.

Update March 13, 14:45 UTC: Zhao has since posted to X to challenge the reporting, claiming he has “had no discussions of a Binance US deal with … well, anyone” and added that “no felon would mind a pardon, especially being the only one in US history who was ever sentenced to prison for a single BSA charge.”

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