One of the co-founders of the controversial memecoin LIBRA says the project itself “sniped” the token right after it rolled out.
In crypto trading, sniping refers to the practice of using trading bots or scripts to buy a newly launched coin ahead of big transactions or the entry of retail traders.
Snipers get their edge by buying early in anticipation of a massive spike in trading volume with the arrival of other investors.
In a new interview on the voidzilla YouTube channel, LIBRA co-creator Hayden Davis says he does not deny that wallets linked to the project sniped the memecoin on launch day.
According to Davis, LIBRA had a separate treasury dedicated to gobbling up the token and front-running other investors.
“That money that we consider ‘sniping’ is the project’s money.”
Davis says teams behind memecoin launches often practice sniping “to deter” others from getting in early.
“From the standpoint of sniping, most of the time when we’re sniping, we’re attempting to avoid other snipers getting in.”
He explains that memecoin projects need to snipe their own coins to increase the odds of survival by inflating the market cap to a level high enough that the market can absorb large sell orders from deep-pocketed investors.
LIBRA, a crypto project initially backed by Argentinan President Javier Milei, surged to a market cap of over $4 billion on launch day before losing more than 95% of its value on the same day. Milei has since backtracked his support for the crypto asset. The people behind the team, including Davis, are in hot water amid rug-pull and insider trading accusations.
But Davis denies any wrongdoing and says LIBRA is a “plan gone miserably wrong.” He also says that the team is sitting on $100 million worth of the project’s money.
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