Argentina's cabinet chief faces probe over $513,000 Bitcoin disclosure

Argentina's Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni faces an illicit enrichment probe after claiming $300,000 in Bitcoin profits justified $513,000 in undisclosed assets, though on-chain data contradicts his timeline.

"The blockchain confirms about 15 bitcoin in across three deposits in 2017 and 15 bitcoin out in two transactions in 2018 — clearing close to $60,000, not the $300,000 he described," Fernando Molina, data expert at Blockworks, said.

Adorni told La Nacion he invested roughly $200,000 in Bitcoin between 2014 and 2018 and profited about $300,000. But the single wallet he disclosed shows activity only between August 2017 and March 2018. In a 2020 YouTube talk sponsored by Lemon Wallet, he said he discovered crypto when Bitcoin traded near $6,000 — a price Bitcoin first reached in October 2017, not 2014. His amended declaration logged roughly $513,000 in U.S. dollar cash as proceeds from asset sales, with crypto held through Binance and Lemon entering his accounts between 2021 and 2023, local media reported.

Federal Judge Ariel Lijo and prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita are examining property, renovations and cash payments that exceeded Adorni's public salary. In May, the architect who remodeled the family's country house testified Adorni paid him $245,000 in cash — more than the position's annual salary. The case also intersects with the LIBRA memecoin scandal, as entrepreneur Mauricio Novelli — who ran the investing courses where Adorni taught in 2022 — was among those who brought LIBRA into the Casa Rosada.

Early Bitcoin adopters in Argentina cast further doubt on Adorni's account. Franco Amati, an early Argentine Bitcoin enthusiast, noted that large purchases in 2014 were rare. "Were there any Bitcoin purchase transactions in Argentina in 2014 for $100,000? Few, difficult to complete, and requiring multiple sellers to reach the total," Amati posted on X.

Carlos Maslaton, another early Argentine Bitcoin advocate at Roxom, said he operated Xapo Bank's over-the-counter desk during the period Adorni cited. Despite Argentines making up over 80 percent of Xapo's operation, the country was not among its most active markets. "We can reconstruct, in detail, what Bitcoin was and how it worked in 2013-2015, the period Adorni invoked to justify the unjustifiable," Maslaton detailed on X.

Molina's on-chain analysis adds context: only 2.86 percent of Bitcoin wallets in 2014 held more than $10,000 worth of BTC, and just 0.48 percent held more than $56,000. The average BTC holding that year was approximately $2,378, or 4.22 BTC.

President Javier Milei has said he will not seek Adorni's resignation. But Patricia Bullrich, who leads Milei's Senate bloc, was sharper. "This is more than a mistake, this is an ethical omission," she said.

The case lands in a government already under crypto scrutiny. Milei is a person of interest in the inquiry into LIBRA, the February 2025 memecoin he promoted on X that collapsed and cost buyers around $251 million. Argentina's Chamber of Deputies reopened that probe in April.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.