Accused of spending money to "bribe" the president's sister, who are the hidden hands behind multiple "Rug Pulls"? What is the background of Libra issuer Kelsier Ventures?

Author: Weilin, PANews

Argentinian President Milei has repeatedly recommended the LIBRA token on social media platform X, and the token's price plummeted after the tweet was deleted. As the farce of Libra's issuance fermented over several days, the behind-the-scenes operator, token market maker Kelsier Ventures and its CEO Hayden Davis, surfaced, being accused of being co-founders of the LIBRA token. With the exposure of insider trading, political entanglements, and various operational plans, Hayden Davis has been labeled a "rugger," including deep involvement in the meme token MELANIA, named after Trump's wife. In a recent video interview, Hayden Davis responded to various issues related to the founding of LIBRA.

Hayden Davis is one of the central figures in the controversy surrounding the issuance of the token by the Argentinian president. This article will take a closer look at Hayden Davis and Kelsier Ventures, exploring their backgrounds and the roles they played in this Libra scandal.

Accused of "Bribing" the President's Sister, Hayden Davis Denies

Hayden Davis has been accused of bribing his way into the inner circle of Argentinian President Javier Milei.

On February 19, Coindesk reported that Hayden Davis had stated in a text message last December that he could "control" President Milei because he had been sending money to Milei's sister, Karina Milei (currently the Secretary General of the Argentinian Presidential Office). "I send money to his sister, and he will sign anything I say and act according to my wishes." This disclosure is the latest development in the LIBRA token scandal that has been brewing for several days.

However, Davis's spokesperson Michael Padovano immediately responded that the media reports were "politically motivated," and he did not recall sending such a message, nor did he have any related records on his phone.

The situation traces back to the morning of February 15, when Milei recommended a little-known token $LIBRA on X, which saw its market cap rise to $4.24 billion within half an hour before plummeting to $827 million. However, as more insider addresses revealed massive profits, Milei deleted the post a few hours later and denied any association with the cryptocurrency, after which the token price quickly fell to $0.20. This presidential token issuance farce escalated, implicating multiple projects including Kelsier Ventures, KIP Protocol, Meteora, and Jupiter.

Among them, Kelsier Ventures, as the issuer of Libra, has been pointed out as being involved in insider trading of various meme tokens such as MELANIA, ENRON, and BOB, raking in over $200 million.

The scale of investor losses caused by this Libra incident is significant, further pushing Kelsier Ventures into the spotlight.

According to El Economista, approximately 44,000 users were affected by this "rug pull" incident. Additionally, crypto lawyer wassielawyer disclosed that this number could reach nearly 75,000 users, with total losses around $286 million. However, Argentinian President Milei stated that the claim of 44,000 people being affected was false, asserting that the number was at most 5,000, and the likelihood of involving Argentinians was very low. A PANews investigation showed that nearly 30% of large holders bought in at high prices, making early investors the hardest hit.

Involved in Multiple "Rug Pulls," Restaurant Owner Transitions to Crypto Family Business

On February 17, blockchain data company Bubblemaps posted on X, stating, "The teams behind LIBRA, MELANIA, and other short-lived tokens are actually the same group. After analyzing cross-chain transfers and timing patterns, we are highly confident that this speculation is correct. It all started with our investigation into sniper activities on MELANIA." On-chain analysis indicates that Kelsier Ventures' wallet played a central role in the scams involving MELANIA, TRUST, KACY, VIBES, and the recently hyped HOOD token.

Kelsier Ventures had previously maintained a mysterious profile. Nevertheless, an industry insider recently contacted by PANews stated, "This Kelsier market maker is a notorious meme rugger from Dubai."

Currently, Kelsier Ventures is still actively operating, but its location remains uncertain. A video investigation by BoDoggos Entertainment CEO Nick O'Neil revealed that he received a quote. The service process of Kelsier Ventures is divided into several steps:

• Wash, deploy, snipe
• Market make
• Dump the market make tokens (20%)
• Wash & extract

90% of the "snipers" come from within Kelsier Ventures. They distribute tokens to friends or set up operations for their own bots. Kelsier Ventures set a 2% token distribution and a maximum daily sales limit of 0.1%. Additionally, there is a daily fee of $3,000 or 20% of the withdrawal amount, whichever is higher.

According to Kelsier Ventures' official Twitter, the company "invests, provides consulting, and brings cutting-edge technologies in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence to market." Currently, its official website has removed team information, and its homepage appears to have little difference from other Web3 projects.

Public records show that Kelsier Ventures was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Delaware, USA. The company focuses on investing in firms within the financial services industry. Since its inception, Kelsier Ventures has completed five investments, including DeFiTuna, Scallop Group, and UpRock. Additionally, in November 2023, Kelsier participated in the financing of Bitcoin non-custodial P2P order book service provider Saturn. On June 1, 2024, E Money Network announced on X that it had completed a $3.3 million bridge round of financing, with Kelsier Ventures as one of the lead investors. Kelsier Ventures' latest investment occurred on January 26, 2025, targeting the financial services company DeFiTuna.

Kelsier Ventures' website previously indicated that Hayden Davis's father, Tom Davis, is the chairman of the company. He had previously served time in prison and later operated a chain of restaurants on the East Coast of the United States. During a business expansion visit to Dubai, he read about Dubai's plan to establish a "crypto valley," which inspired him to start a blockchain company there. Subsequently, he began to connect with top figures in the crypto field, building a network and getting involved in venture capital, investing in several early projects. Early on, Tom referred to himself as the CEO of Kelsier Ventures. Kelsier Ventures' COO Gideon Davis is presumed to be Hayden Davis's brother. In 2022, as a college student, he began to get involved in the crypto industry, working on the DeFi project Unlock and its metaverse project NeoNexus. However, this project claimed to have run out of funds in March 2022 and failed to continue operations, with the community accusing it of a "soft rug."

Hayden Mark Davis's LinkedIn page is currently inaccessible. However, according to public reports, his previous information indicated that he had been the CEO of Kelsier since October 2020. Since May of the same year, he became the founder of Luxury Drip, a company with an unclear industry. According to Davis, he began his entrepreneurial journey in August 2017, running a company called Leaders Elevate, which appears to be another family business of the Davis family.

Admits to Participating in MELANIA Sniping, Claims Libra is Not a Rug but a Failed Plan

In addition to releasing a video statement after the incident, Hayden Mark Davis also accepted an interview with crypto blogger Coffeezilla. He stated, "In the original LIBRA launch plan, Milei would release another video, and there would be some other high-profile individuals interacting with him. So at that time, our thought was whether we could drive away the 'snipers' by extracting liquidity while retaining funds to prevent the project from completely collapsing after the price dropped, and then let Milei release the second video and reinvest the funds, replicating a 'blowout feast' like TRUMP. I don't know why Milei deleted the first post; I suspect he faced immense political pressure, which led to his panic. Given his position, I completely understand his feelings."

Despite the token's plummet, he stated, "People say this is another rug, but that's not an objective fact; there are still tens of millions of dollars in liquidity locked, and the token's market cap is still $300 million. This is not a rug; it just failed as a plan. As the custodian, I still hold $100 million in the accounts I control, but I really wish someone would tell me how to handle it. I don't want to be the target; I haven't benefited from this, but my life is in danger because of it."

When discussing insider trading, host Coffeezilla remarked that people's frustration stems from the fact that they are not angry because of your trading skills, but because you know information that the public does not and used that information to trade. In the public market, this is illegal and constitutes insider trading.

Hayden Davis replied, "But in the meme market, this is not illegal. This is what happens in every trade. This is the rule here; people know this, agree to it, and make money off it. If you want to blame this, you have to blame everything else. To be honest, I actually don't oppose this. But I think the vast majority of people betting on meme tokens, especially retail traders who acted in the early stages, this is the game rule of this market. This is not a capital market; this is a casino."

In the interview, Davis also admitted to participating in the sniping of the First Lady token MELANIA.

"Avoiding Suspicion" Refunds for Participating Projects, Legal Storm May Follow

In light of the Libra issuance scandal, on February 17, DefiTuna's founder Moty publicly announced on X that DefiTuna had refunded Kelsier, which invested $30,000 in the project on January 16, 2025, and severed all ties with it.

Moreover, the Libra incident has also triggered legal risks. On February 15, the Argentinian Presidential Office announced that Milei had instructed the anti-corruption office to immediately participate in an investigation to determine whether any members of the Argentinian government, including Milei himself, had engaged in improper conduct in this incident. The opposition plans to impeach Milei.

On February 17, an Argentinian law firm filed a criminal lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), accusing the masterminds behind the LIBRA token collapse and calling for an investigation into Argentinian President Milei's role. In another legal battle, the Civic Coalition ARI also filed a criminal lawsuit on February 17, demanding the DOJ investigate the bribery and fraud allegations allegedly promoted by President Milei, adding that "the government cannot be both the athlete and the referee."

As the LIBRA token scandal continues to unfold, the roles and motives of Hayden Davis and Kelsier Ventures have become the focus of public and regulatory scrutiny. Although Davis attempts to clarify his position and emphasize that his actions comply with market rules, doubts regarding his alleged market manipulation and insider trading have not dissipated. As more evidence emerges, this incident may have far-reaching implications for the regulatory environment of the cryptocurrency market. PANews will continue to track and monitor the latest developments.