Everything to know about Hayden Davis, the crypto scammer who created LIBRA, TRUMP, and MELANIA

Hayden Davis, 28, went from selling Oreos to pay rent to pulling off one of the biggest crypto scams in history. He called himself a “hustling expert” on LinkedIn, but last month, his name became synonymous with fraud, deception, and a $1 billion crypto collapse.

The disaster came thanks to $LIBRA, a meme coin he pushed as a way to help Argentina’s economy, only for it to crash overnight, leaving more than 10,000 investors burned and at least $250 million gone. Meanwhile, Hayden walked away with $100 million and hasn’t been heard from ever since. But who is this guy? How’d he get here? Here is everything you need to know about Hayden Davis.

Selling dreams and dumping bags

The $LIBRA scandal dragged in Argentine President Javier Milei, who promoted the meme coin just before the price surged and then tanked. And the backlash on Milei has been relentless— lawsuits, fraud complaints, and even calls for criminal investigations.

Hayden’s history isn’t a mystery. Before $LIBRA, there was $TRUMP and $MELANIA—two meme coins tied to president Donald Trump and his wife, Melania.

In January, just two days before inauguration, Trump launched his own token, $TRUMP, which pumped and crashed just as fast.

A day later, Melania followed suit with $MELANIA, and Hayden later admitted he was deeply involved in both and that Trump invited him and other industry elites to Washington, where they paid for early access and made plans to snipe the tokens, and basically rug pull investors.

Yeah, that guy was on Coffeezilla admitting to more than 5 different crimes.

The $LIBRA collapse

On February 14, Hayden and his partners launched $LIBRA. That night, Milei promoted it, calling it a project that would “encourage Argentina’s economic growth.” The token price surged, and then—within hours—it tanked.

By midnight, millions were wiped out, and investors were left holding worthless bags. Milei quickly deleted his post, claiming he “had no knowledge of the project’s details.”

But Hayden didn’t back down. In a video posted the next day, he said:

“I am indeed Javier Milei’s adviser.”

By February 16, investors were furious, and Milei’s political opponents were calling for impeachment. Fraud complaints piled up, and an Argentine law firm pushed the FBI and SEC to open an investigation.

When asked about the massive losses, Hayden didn’t seem bothered.

“It is an insider’s game,” he told crypto journalist Stephen Findeisen, aka Coffeezilla. “This is an unregulated casino.”

Milei backed up that sentiment.

“It’s like someone who plays Russian roulette and gets hit,” he told Argentine media outlet Todo Noticias.

Despite everything, Hayden still hinted at buying back into $LIBRA. He claimed he “might use the $100 million he made” to stabilize the coin—but nothing came of it.

When Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy asked him about the entire situation in an interview last month, Hayden merely shrugged and said, “I’ve done nothing different than what every other deployer does. “Maybe I shouldn’t have done that in hindsight, whatever. But I’m not a piece of sh*t.”

Hayden’s shady family

The company behind these crypto projects is Kelsier Ventures, Hayden’s family-run venture capital firm. Kelsier was founded by Hayden’s father, Tom Davis, a convicted felon with a history of shady business moves.

Tom once ran a Christian adoption nonprofit, but later turned to entrepreneurship and crypto, after moving to Dubai for tax advantages.

The family’s background is just as chaotic as Hayden himself. His mother comes from a long line of fundamentalist Christians, including ties to a violent cult called the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God.

According to Mrs. Davis, her own father was killed by cult members after trying to escape. She was never a member, but the history of questionable leadership and control runs deep in the Davis family.

Kelsier Ventures jumped into crypto in 2021, making early-stage investments in multiple exchanges, NFTs, and meme coins. One of its biggest connections was Meteora, the crypto exchange that launched both $LIBRA and $MELANIA.

The deals that made it happen

Hayden’s entire career has been about selling, networking, and cashing out before the fall. At 17, he was selling energy drinks for Limu, a multilevel marketing scheme his father was involved in.

He spent two semesters at Liberty University on a soccer scholarship, then jumped from one failed business to another—T-shirt printing, private equity, even professional soccer in Spain.

By 2021, Hayden was living in Los Angeles with two roommates, running what he called his “fifth business failure.” That’s when crypto changed everything.

The people who worked with him say he could sell anything.

“If you sit down with him and he wants to sell you something, he will convince you,” Steven Enamakel, a Dubai-based crypto entrepreneur who briefly worked with him, told the Journal on Friday.

That skill got Hayden into $MELANIA. Ben Chow, the co-founder of Meteora, said he personally connected Kelsier to the team behind the token because they “appeared to be trustworthy.”

Hayden also built close ties with Milei. In fall 2023, he and his brother Gideon started brokering deals between Milei and various crypto companies. They sat next to Cube’s founder at an Argentine tech conference, where Milei gave a speech, and by November, local media spotted Hayden entering Argentina’s presidential palace.

In January 2024, Milei posted a photo with Hayden, calling him “an adviser on blockchain and AI.”

Milei signed off with his famous catchphrase, “LONG LIVE FREEDOM, DAMN IT…!!!”

Milei has since moved on from the disaster. He was at the CPAC event with buddy Elon Musk, whom he gave a chainsaw to. And his efforts with Argentina’s economy are also paying off as the IMF just signed off on a deal for the country.

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