Argentine judge freezes 25 crypto wallets tied to Libra

Federal Judge Marcelo Martinez ordered the identification and immediate freezing of 25 cryptocurrency wallets linked to the Libra token after a police reconstruction traced millions in transfers through major exchanges in Argentina.

The Federal Police Cybercrime Technical Department prepared a report that reconstructed transaction paths beginning in May. The report identified a set of addresses connected to the token’s launch and flagged eight wallets labeled “Libra team” as directly involved in the rollout that followed public promotion of the token by President Javier Milei.

Investigators found that four addresses consolidated nearly $57 million into a single address. That consolidated address had previously been blocked and later released by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York after U.S. authorities found the funds were not at immediate risk of dissipation.

One cited wallet used multiple addresses to mix funds and attempted to obscure transaction routes. On May 10, the report records a transfer that routed about $500,000 through an interoperability protocol into a Tron address. The report documents 17 distinct movements from that wallet, with at least 10 of those transfers passing through Binance.

Tracing activity through centralized exchanges gave investigators potential ways to identify users. The report links eight of the wallets to Bybit, two to OKX and two to Bitfinex. Authorities estimate roughly $8.2 million passed through exchanges that apply know-your-customer controls, which could allow law enforcement to request account-holder data. The report also notes some on-chain operations do not require customer identification at every institution, meaning some users may remain difficult to identify.

The remaining funds from the Libra initiative are now under the control of a Libra Trust. Court documents say the trust plans to distribute the assets as grants to Argentine companies, aiming to complete distributions before November. Seventy-one grant applications are pending approval.

Judge Martinez’s order directs authorities to freeze the named wallets and to identify their owners while criminal tracing continues. The legal actions reference domestic investigative work and prior international court decisions, and they cite exchange compliance records as part of the investigation into the flow of funds.