Argentina’s opposition parties have revived a stalled investigation into President Javier Milei’s role in the LIBRA scandal, seizing on new corruption allegations that have rattled the government just weeks before October’s elections.

The commission, first created in April but largely paralyzed by bureaucratic and congressional hurdles, was reactivated on Aug. 28 after leaked recordings implicated Milei and his sister Karina in a separate bribery scheme.

The tapes, belonging to former presidential attorney and government official Diego Spagnuolo, contained claims of cash-for-favors dealings. Spagnuolo later admitted the recordings were authentic.

Public backlash fuels probe

The scandal has triggered a wave of public anger. On Wednesday, protesters hurled lettuce and rubbish at Milei during a public appearance, an act that drew headlines across the country.

While no injuries were reported, the incident highlights mounting unrest against the president’s administration. The fresh controversy has given the LIBRA probe new momentum. It had lost traction after Milei dissolved its initial task force in May.

The LIBRA affair centers on allegations of insider trading and a pump-and-dump scheme tied to the digital token, a case prosecutors say may have involved Argentina’s highest levels of power.

Maximiliano Ferraro, a legislator from the Civic Coalition ARI and head of the new investigative body, said the commission intends to establish whether misconduct occurred. Ferraro said the investigation was reignited because questions remain over whether insider trading took place.

Political stakes ahead of elections

Five opposition parties, representing 136 of the Chamber of Deputies’ 257 lawmakers, voted to reopen the case despite pushback from Milei’s allies.

The commission set a reporting deadline of Nov. 10, weeks after Argentines head to the polls.

The inquiry adds to the mounting challenges facing Milei as he navigates a presidency already strained by economic turmoil and growing discontent. The combination of corruption scandals and revived investigations could weigh heavily on his political future.

While the LIBRA scandal has shaken Argentina’s crypto community, the broader allegations of bribery and abuse of power have struck a deeper chord with the public. With elections looming, the outcome of the investigation, and its political fallout, remains uncertain.

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Buenos Aires has switched on “BA Cripto,” a policy package that lets residents and businesses settle city taxes and administrative fees using cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. Rolled out on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, the program covers municipal levies such as ABL (property tax), Patentes (vehicle tax), and Ingresos Brutos (turnover tax), as well as non-tax procedures like driver’s licenses and traffic fines, payable via a city QR flow.

Buenos Aires Goes Crypto

City Hall’s move is broader than a payments toggle. Officials unveiled four measures: adding crypto-linked activities to the city’s economic-activity nomenclator to simplify filings; excluding virtual-asset service providers (PSAVs) from certain bank-collection regimes under the turnover tax; shifting the taxable base for crypto trading from gross transaction value to the net spread; and enabling QR crypto payments for both taxes and administrative services. The government framed the package as a regulatory tune-up that reduces frictions while aligning taxation with how digital-asset markets actually operate.

Mayor Jorge Macri presented the initiative as an institutional modernization designed to attract investment and make compliance easier. “The goal is for the City to be a world leader in crypto,” he said, adding: “We already have the human capital, and now we are building the tools by reducing bureaucracy to make taxpayer compliance easier and to support the arrival of new companies setting up here.” The remarks were delivered at The Slow Kale in Colegiales, a venue that accepts crypto payments.

Macri also argued the package signals a friendlier posture toward the sector: “These measures ensure the crypto world sees that the City is increasingly friendly. The digital economy compels us to update and adapt with a modern, agile, efficient and intelligent State. We want talent to find a place to grow, innovate and lead without obstacles.”

The backdrop is growing usage. According to city data cited at launch, roughly 10,000 people in Buenos Aires receive income from abroad via crypto or PayPal, and the use of PIX rails has been rising. Nationwide, Argentina counts “more than 10 million” crypto accounts—about 22% of Latin America’s total—figures the city says justify tailored rules and public-service rails that natively accommodate digital assets.

For firms, the classification update matters because it gives crypto activities an explicit slot in the tax nomenclator, improving clarity “without fiscal cost” and easing cross-jurisdiction information matching. Excluding PSAVs from bank-collection regimes is intended to curb automatic withholdings that can tie up working capital, while the new spread-based tax base acknowledges the mismatch between high-volume, low-margin trading and a gross-receipts framework. Together, these steps amount to what the city calls a more “agile” and “transparent” environment for digital-asset businesses to operate in the capital.

On the consumer side, the payment experience is meant to be straightforward: scan a city QR and pay the selected tax or fee with a compatible wallet. Officials said only some wallets currently support crypto payments, but a Buenos Aires–provided “aggregator” is in the works to let “neighbors and companies” pay “from any wallet, directly, faster, and simpler.” The government did not publish a technical spec or list of supported assets at launch.

Hernán Lombardi, the city’s Economic Development Minister, cast the reforms as a recalibration of legal and tax treatment for digital assets. “These reforms mark a change in the legal and tax treatment of digital assets. Less bureaucracy, greater legal certainty, and clear rules will translate into more investment,” he said, noting the updated nomenclator will help “determine and clarify the activities of companies and individual crypto-asset users, and thus avoid withholdings that compromise the sector’s working capital.”

At press time, the total crypto market cap stood at $3.77 trillion.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

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