Blab Crypto
Argentina Cabinet Chiefs Crypto Claims Scrutinised After Wallet Analysis and Asset-Declaration Review
Manuel Adorni, the chief of President Javier Milei’s cabinet, is under fresh fire after a television interview on LN+ in which he boasted about earning roughly US$300 000 from crypto trading. The claim sparked a chain reaction of forensic scrutiny.
Blockchain analyst Fernando Molina was the first to put Adorni’s numbers to the test. In a post shared on social media, Molina dissected the Bitcoin address the cabinet chief displayed on camera. The wallet, active only between 2017 and 2018, shows a single purchase and a single sale on the Bittrex exchange, with no other network activity. Molina’s calculation suggests those two transactions would have yielded about US$60 000—far short of the figure Adorni cited.
Molina’s investigation didn’t stop at that one address. Earlier this year he examined a Binance‑linked wallet that, according to his records, received roughly US$17 500 in 2024, and an Ethereum address that amassed close to US$36 000 over a few months. Both streams of funds were later moved into accounts tied to Argentine cryptocurrency exchanges.
Adding another layer to the puzzle, Molina traced a cluster of Tron‑network wallets. Between July 2024 and February 2025, those accounts sent 11 transfers totaling about US$238 000 to a Binance wallet he associates with Adorni. He noted that Binance and the smaller exchange Lemon maintain user‑identification systems that could, if subpoenaed, reveal the true account holders.
Parallel to the on‑chain audit, programmer Maximiliano Firtman reviewed the asset‑declaration statements Adorni filed with Argentina’s Anti‑Corruption Office. Firtman highlighted several inconsistencies. In the 2023 declaration, Adorni listed “3,499.98 Bitcoin” valued at approximately US$3,500—a figure that does not align with Bitcoin’s market price, suggesting a possible reference to a stablecoin such as USDT, USDC, or DAI.
The review also uncovered a declaration of “0.01 Bitcoin” valued at zero pesos, again inconsistent with the asset’s value at the time. The year‑end filing included an item described as “Crypto Binance” with 11,019 units—a term that points to an exchange rather than a specific cryptocurrency, leaving the nature of the holding ambiguous. Moreover, the asset was reported as acquired in March 2021 but was absent from Adorni’s initial 2023 declaration, hinting at a potential omission.
The case is now in the hands of federal judge Ariel Lijo and prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita. The court has already stripped Adorni of banking, tax, and financial‑secrecy protections. Prosecutors have requested records from a range of financial institutions and digital platforms, including Mercado Pago, Brubank, Personal Pay, Open Bank, and several cryptocurrency exchanges.
A 2020 presentation Adorni gave to the online platform Lemon resurfaced during the probe. In that talk, he claimed his first contact with Bitcoin came when the coin traded near US$6,000 and that he had limited knowledge of the market at the time. The statement appears at odds with his later claims of substantial early investments, a contradiction that has drawn further scrutiny.
The investigation into Adorni’s crypto holdings remains active as the court seeks to establish ownership and verify the accuracy of the reported assets. Additional proceedings are expected to address the discrepancies highlighted by Molina and Firtman.
This scrutiny underscores a broader trend: regulators and the public are increasingly demanding financial transparency from high‑profile officials. As the investigation proceeds, new data from exchanges and financial institutions may illuminate the true nature and valuation of the wallets in question.
Blockchain analyst Fernando Molina was the first to put Adorni’s numbers to the test. In a post shared on social media, Molina dissected the Bitcoin address the cabinet chief displayed on camera. The wallet, active only between 2017 and 2018, shows a single purchase and a single sale on the Bittrex exchange, with no other network activity. Molina’s calculation suggests those two transactions would have yielded about US$60 000—far short of the figure Adorni cited.
Molina’s investigation didn’t stop at that one address. Earlier this year he examined a Binance‑linked wallet that, according to his records, received roughly US$17 500 in 2024, and an Ethereum address that amassed close to US$36 000 over a few months. Both streams of funds were later moved into accounts tied to Argentine cryptocurrency exchanges.
Adding another layer to the puzzle, Molina traced a cluster of Tron‑network wallets. Between July 2024 and February 2025, those accounts sent 11 transfers totaling about US$238 000 to a Binance wallet he associates with Adorni. He noted that Binance and the smaller exchange Lemon maintain user‑identification systems that could, if subpoenaed, reveal the true account holders.
Parallel to the on‑chain audit, programmer Maximiliano Firtman reviewed the asset‑declaration statements Adorni filed with Argentina’s Anti‑Corruption Office. Firtman highlighted several inconsistencies. In the 2023 declaration, Adorni listed “3,499.98 Bitcoin” valued at approximately US$3,500—a figure that does not align with Bitcoin’s market price, suggesting a possible reference to a stablecoin such as USDT, USDC, or DAI.
The review also uncovered a declaration of “0.01 Bitcoin” valued at zero pesos, again inconsistent with the asset’s value at the time. The year‑end filing included an item described as “Crypto Binance” with 11,019 units—a term that points to an exchange rather than a specific cryptocurrency, leaving the nature of the holding ambiguous. Moreover, the asset was reported as acquired in March 2021 but was absent from Adorni’s initial 2023 declaration, hinting at a potential omission.
The case is now in the hands of federal judge Ariel Lijo and prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita. The court has already stripped Adorni of banking, tax, and financial‑secrecy protections. Prosecutors have requested records from a range of financial institutions and digital platforms, including Mercado Pago, Brubank, Personal Pay, Open Bank, and several cryptocurrency exchanges.
A 2020 presentation Adorni gave to the online platform Lemon resurfaced during the probe. In that talk, he claimed his first contact with Bitcoin came when the coin traded near US$6,000 and that he had limited knowledge of the market at the time. The statement appears at odds with his later claims of substantial early investments, a contradiction that has drawn further scrutiny.
The investigation into Adorni’s crypto holdings remains active as the court seeks to establish ownership and verify the accuracy of the reported assets. Additional proceedings are expected to address the discrepancies highlighted by Molina and Firtman.
This scrutiny underscores a broader trend: regulators and the public are increasingly demanding financial transparency from high‑profile officials. As the investigation proceeds, new data from exchanges and financial institutions may illuminate the true nature and valuation of the wallets in question.
