Argentina’s President, Javier Milei, is under intense scrutiny this week after promoting the controversial Solana-based meme coin LIBRA via social media on Friday.

Mere hours later, Milei removed his posts from his official X account, claiming he had little to no knowledge about the token—stating instead that he thought it was a company looking to finance private ventures.

While the token has crashed and a lawsuit has been filed, those looking to shirk the blame and point the finger elsewhere are scrambling to deflect responsibility.

As the dust settles, four individuals have surfaced as key figures that are allegedly behind the launch: Julian Peh, Hayden Davis, Mauricio Novelli, and Manuel Godoy. But who are they?

Julian Peh, KIP Protocol

KIP Protocol as an organization gets most of the blame from Milei. Julian Peh co-founded the company and is currently acting as the CEO.

Peh studied law at the National University of Singapore, between 2000 and 2004, according to his LinkedIn, founding two companies in the process.

Post-graduation, he worked as a lawyer at the firm Allen & Overy Shook Lin & Bok for two years before joining the Citibank Ultima Card as a consultant for five years.

He then went on to found an Asian luxury magazine and a suite of luxury retail mobile apps. During this period, he became the owner of a luxury investment company, a role he still holds.

In April 2023, he founded KIP Protocol, which brands itself as a “technical AI solutions company focused on deploying AI infrastructure.” In February, KIP Protocol closed a strategic funding round led by Animoca Ventures, one of the largest investors in crypto projects and the venture investment arm of Web3 game publisher Animoca Brands.

In an interview with “The GM Show,” Peh explained that he got into crypto in 2016 after he sold his luxury mobile app company. He says he bought his first Bitcoin via LocalBitcoins before getting pulled in by the Ethereum initial coin offering or ICO boom. He then dove into the world of NFTs, claiming to still own some CryptoKitties as of June 2024.

It appears that Peh met with President Milei in April at the Tech Forum Argentina, a conference where both were set to speak and KIP Protocol was an official sponsor. The pair and other attendees like Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson were pictured at the conference.

Then, in October, Peh met with Milei to discuss how AI could help Argentina—with the pair posing for another photo, according to a KIP Protocol blog post.

These encounters led to KIP Protocol being invited to join the Blockchain Committee of the Buenos Aires City Government, which the company accepted.

In December 2024, KIP Protocol launched its KIP token on Ethereum, launching at a $32 million market cap. However, it has since fallen to $8.43 million, according to CoinMarketCap, although these figures are based on self-reported figures of the circulating token supply.

Hours after the launch of LIBRA on Friday, KIP Protocol said the token would “help private enterprises,” calling it a success. This X post stated that it is a “private enterprise project,” and that President Milei was not involved in development.

Peh maintains that neither he nor KIP Protocol were involved in the token launch, affirming that Davis’ company, Kelsier, holds all funds. Peh did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Hayden Davis, Kelsier

Davis has been at the forefront of the media storm following the LIBRA launch, being interviewed by investigative journalist Coffeezilla and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy.

He studied international business at Christian college Liberty University before founding Luxury Drip and Leaders Elevate. According to his LinkedIn, Davis is a “hustling expert” as well as a “serial entrepreneur.” In October 2020, he joined Kelsier, a company aiming to provide Web3 go-to-market expertise, as Chief Executive Officer.

Surprisingly, before this fiasco, Davis had a fairly small digital footprint. That said, on January 30, President Milei posted on X, posing alongside Davis and claiming that he had an “interesting” chat in which he was advised about blockchain and AI.

According to the statement posted by the official President of Argentina X account, Davis pitched the technological infrastructure of the LIBRA project. The post claims he was acting on behalf of KIP Protocol, but this fact has been disputed, as Davis is instead the CEO of Kelsier.

In a statement following the LIBRA collapse, Davis claimed that he is President Milei’s advisor and said that he is working on “much bigger tokenization and really cool stuff in Argentina.” However, the X statement by the President of Argentina following the LIBRA launch stated that “Mr. Davis had no and does not have any connection with the Argentine government.”

Amid the chaos, Davis defended Peh, claiming that his company is “completely innocent of any wrongdoing.” He further claimed that Milei pointing the finger at KIP Protocol was done in self-defense.

In a written statement, Davis outlined his role with LIBRA as being responsible for “ensuring liquidity” and acting as the custodian, not the owner, of associated funds. He later claimed he is now in control of $100 million worth of funds relating to the project but insists that it is not his. When pressed about who owns those funds, he vaguely said, “It’s Argentina’s.”

In an interview with Coffeezilla, Davis confirmed that Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Godoy from Tech Forum Argentina were involved in the LIBRA token launch. This is in line with a statement issued by KIP Protocol, that it was Novelli that came to Peh pitching the LIBRA token.

In text messages viewed by both CoinDesk and La Nacion, Davis reportedly claimed that he had influence over Javier Milei, and that by paying the president’s sister—Argentine government official Karina Milei—that the head of state “signs whatever I say and does what I want.”

Davis denied the allegations to CoinDesk. Kelsier did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Mauricio Novelli and Manuel Godoy, Tech Forum Argentina

The exact role of Novelli and Godoy is still unclear but the pair may have been central to the conception of the token. The pair were part of the team behind Tech Forum Argentina, the conference that KIP Protocol sponsored with President Milei and Peh in attendance; Novelli and Godoy also appear to be featured in the aforementioned photo.

Novelli is a professional trader, actively competing in the World Cup Trading Championships. He is currently third in the 1st Quarter Futures Day Trading Championship, but according to Argentine newspaper Ambito, he was crowned the “best trader in America” in the third quarter of 2024, and was second worldwide in the futures tournament.

He studied at the University of Cambridge, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE), and Università Bocconi, according to LinkedIn, before joining Galicia Bank as an account executive then moving to BBVA as a senior account executive.

Novelli then founded N&W Professional Traders, a company that offers courses on how to trade effectively, in 2019. In February 2021, the firm received an official endorsement from Milei, two years before he became President of Argentina.

“If you want to invest like the professionals do, I recommend that you get acquainted with the friends at NW Professional Traders,” Milei says directly to the camera, according to Google Translate. In the description of the video, it claims Milei has taken the company’s courses.

Once he became president in 2023, N&W Professional Traders praised Milei, posting two photos with him and a screenshot of Milei’s Instagram account with the company’s link in his bio.

It appears that the pair maintained a relationship, with Novelli visiting Casa Rosada, the Argentinian government office, on multiple occasions, according to the Director at the Center for Political Economy of Argentina, Julia Strada. On one occasion, they even brought Godoy and posted a photo to Instagram.

Novelli did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Manuel “Manu” Godoy, according to LinkedIn, studied at UADE at the same time as Novelli. This may be how the pair met. He then went on to be a project manager at an esports and gaming agency before founding four separate companies.

In 2016, he posted his first video to YouTube on the mobile game Clash Royale and soon became a full-time content creator, eventually pivoting from gaming to finance videos. Since then, he has racked up nearly a million subscribers on YouTube, along with 188,000 on X and 183,000 on Instagram.

On X, Godoy appears to be a vocal supporter of Milei, referring to him as a “dictator voted for by the people.” He also joked in January about a potential official MILEI token, claiming that it could pay the country’s debt.

In 2024, according to a YouTube video, he appears to have launched an NFT collection called Kmanus88 (the same name as his YouTube account), but it was soon rebranded to Bipzy. These NFTs were initially listed by owners for as much as $27,000 worth of Ethereum, but now are listed for as little as $785. There hasn’t been an announcement in the Discord since June 2024.

Godoy did not respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Who’s to blame?

On Sunday, KIP Protocol denied involvement and blamed Mauricio Novelli for originating the LIBRA idea.

In his interview with Coffeezilla, Davis added Godoy to the list of those involved. According to KIP Protocol and Davis, KIP’s role was organizing fund allocations to “Argentinian companies.”

Davis, as Kelsier’s CEO, acted as a “launch strategist,” he said, making decisions based on the “team’s” direction. This left Davis in control of over $100 million in LIBRA-related funds. Novelli was allegedly the one who pitched the token to KIP, while Godoy, his associate, appears to have been involved from within Tech Forum Argentina.

Precisely who will ultimately be held responsible remains uncertain. Each of these four figures allegedly played a unique role in the chaotic launch. The question now is: Will any of them take the blame amid increasing scrutiny?

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair and Andrew Hayward