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Davis Reveals Tactics to "Max Extract" from Memecoins Like LIBRA and MELANIA

Kelsier Ventures and Hayden Davis were behind the two largest rug pulls of 2025, LIBRA and MELANIA.
By: Squiffs • February 20, 2025
Davis Reveals Tactics to "Max Extract" from Memecoins Like LIBRA and MELANIA

The memecoin trenches and the Argentinian government are still reeling from the fallout of the LIBRA token, a memecoin endorsed and then swiftly denounced by Argentine president Javier Milei.

In addition to the rampant claims of insider trading, Kelsier Ventures and its project lead, Hayden Davis, are presumed to be largely responsible for the LIBRA memecoin, the ENRON memecoin, and the MELANIA memecoin.

Kelsier is led by Davis, who has been on a media blitz in an attempt to shed light on the launch and clear his name. However, as more information comes to light, it increasingly incriminates Davis and Kelsier.

The LIBRA token launched on Feb. 14 and was swiftly endorsed by Milei on X, sending the token flying to an all-time high valuation of $4.5 billion. However, shortly after the token launch, Milei deleted his post, sending the token tumbling 98% to a $100 million valuation in a matter of hours.

LIBRA Chart - DexScreener
LIBRA Chart - DexScreener

President Milei addressed the token launch on television, where he continued to distance himself from the token launch, saying, “I didn’t promote it, I shared it. I acted in good faith and took a hit.”

Milei was allegedly set to continue to endorse and promote the token, but those involved assume there was “extreme political pressure, and he panicked,” revealed Davis in an interview.

In addition to Davis and Kelsier Ventures, the launch team is believed to have included Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Godoy, heads of Tech Forum - Argentina, and Julian Peh, the CEO of Kip Protocol.

‘An Insider’s Game’

Kelsier Ventures is a small team that consults and invests in crypto projects such as memecoin launches, NFT projects, or DeFi protocols.

Over the last few days, a flurry of news has come out surrounding Davis, painting a much more malicious picture of him than his original interviews.

Davis provided insights into the inner workings of both LIBRA and other launches Kelsier Ventures contributed to in his interview with YouTube journalist CoffeeZilla.

Davis admitted to being involved with the MELANIA token launch on Jan. 19, which many market participants blame for destroying the memecoin market. MELANIA launched just 48 hours after the TRUMP memecoin launch and skyrocketed to a $13 billion valuation before proceeding to dump 90% to its current valuation of $1.2 billion.

Kelsier Ventures also admitted to sniping its own launches. In an interview, Davis repeatedly blames third-party snipers for the heavy volatility seen in memecoins, as opposed to other characteristics of the asset class, such as small liquidity pools or insider trading.

Despite the blame Davis looks to put on third-party snipers, he also said, “This is an insider’s game. This is an unregulated casino.” Third-party snipers are not considered insiders, but are often just onchain sleuths with sophisticated wallet-tracking and transaction tools.

‘Max Extraction’

The sniper debate has been hotly contested amongst market participants, and Kelsier Ventures' response to the third-party sniper “issue” is to snipe launches themselves.

Not only does Kelsier snipe the launch, but they also sell their sniped allocations if the proper conditions are met, otherwise known as market manipulation.

“From the standpoint of sniping, most of the time when we’re sniping, we’re attempting to avoid other snipers getting in….a lot of the time it’s to protect, and if there is enough volume, take some off, so that people can have a chance to pump the chart back up,” Davis told CoffeeZilla.

Previous business partners have pointed the finger at Davis for having poor business meeting etiquette, using previous launch consultations to “max extract.” According to CoinDesk, Davis went as far as to claim that he controls President Milei, boasting that he “signs whatever I say and does what I want.”

Chat Screenshot
Chat Screenshot

'Plan Gone Bad'

Davis maintains that the LIBRA project is not a rug pull but a plan gone bad on an international scale.

According to Davis, the token rollout was also set to include a follow-up promotional video from Milei and “some other high-level people that were going to interact, post, etc, market the video.”

One of these endorsements was allegedly meant to come from the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy, who has also recently caught flak from the memecoin space.

Per Portnoy, he was introduced to Davis via his podcast co-host, Josh Richards, and was given $6 million worth of LIBRA tokens under the condition that he would post undisclosed endorsements of the LIBRA token on his social media pages. Portnoy claimed in a video post that he sent the coins back after Davis told him, “You can’t say that we gave you the coins…then it seems like you’re an insider.”

Despite the incriminating media circuit, the “rugged” funds worth roughly $100 million have not moved from the LIBRA team wallet, and those involved are allegedly looking for a way to redeploy the funds back to those who lost money.

This $100 million is sourced from the funds that Kelsier Ventures pulled from the liquidity pools. In his interview, Davis clarified that the liquidity was sold - constituting a nine-figure rug pull without including any potential side wallets or insider trading that may have been involved.

Some solutions presented include issuing refunds to those who lost money on a percentage basis or deploying the funds directly back into the coin. While there is no way to fix the irreparable losses many traders have suffered, the most time-consuming, but most beneficial may be via cash refunds.

Arkham Intelligence, a blockchain analytics firm, identified over 1,000 Kelsier addresses that they claim belong to the LIBRA team, Hayden Davis and/or his brother and partner at Kelsier, Gideon Davis. The wallets hold nearly $300 million in total assets, with $175 million in LIBRA, as well as $57 million in USDC and $42 million in SOL extracted from the liquidity pool, which Davis “doesn’t know what to do with.”

Kelsier Ventures did not respond to The Defiant’s repeated requests for comment.

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