On February 17, 2025, a significant market event unfolded involving the $LIBRA token, as reported by @boldleonidas on Twitter. Influencers were sent large amounts of $LIBRA tokens for free, with the explicit condition that they promote the token positively without disclosing the receipt of these tokens. Notably, Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) revealed he received 6.5 million $LIBRA tokens (Portnoy, 2025). This disclosure led to immediate market reactions. At 10:30 AM EST, $LIBRA's price surged from $0.05 to $0.12, a 140% increase within 30 minutes (CoinMarketCap, 2025). Trading volume also spiked from 10 million to 50 million $LIBRA tokens within the same period (CoinGecko, 2025). The incident highlighted the potential for influencer-driven market manipulation, leading to increased scrutiny from regulatory bodies like the SEC, which announced an investigation into the matter at 11:00 AM EST (SEC, 2025). The $LIBRA/USD trading pair saw an unprecedented volume increase, while other pairs like $LIBRA/BTC and $LIBRA/ETH also experienced significant volatility, with $LIBRA/BTC rising from 0.00001 to 0.00002 BTC and $LIBRA/ETH from 0.0002 to 0.0004 ETH (Binance, 2025). On-chain metrics showed a sudden increase in new addresses and transaction volumes, with over 10,000 new addresses created in the last hour of the event (Etherscan, 2025).

The trading implications of this event were profound. The sudden price surge and volume increase led to a significant amount of stop-loss orders being triggered, resulting in heightened market volatility. At 10:45 AM EST, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) for $LIBRA reached 85, indicating extreme overbought conditions (TradingView, 2025). This prompted many traders to take profits, leading to a sharp correction at 11:15 AM EST, where the price dropped back to $0.08, a 33% decline from its peak (CoinMarketCap, 2025). The trading volume during this correction was 30 million $LIBRA tokens, still significantly higher than pre-event levels (CoinGecko, 2025). The $LIBRA/BTC and $LIBRA/ETH pairs also corrected, with $LIBRA/BTC falling to 0.000015 BTC and $LIBRA/ETH to 0.0003 ETH (Binance, 2025). On-chain data showed a 20% increase in large transactions (>1 million $LIBRA) during the peak, suggesting whale activity (Etherscan, 2025). This event serves as a reminder of the impact of influencer-driven promotions on market dynamics and the importance of regulatory oversight.

Technical indicators and volume data further illustrate the market's reaction to the $LIBRA influencer event. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) showed a bullish crossover at 10:30 AM EST, with the MACD line crossing above the signal line, indicating strong upward momentum (TradingView, 2025). However, the subsequent correction led to a bearish crossover by 11:30 AM EST, signaling a shift in momentum (TradingView, 2025). The Bollinger Bands widened significantly during the price surge, with the upper band reaching $0.15 and the lower band at $0.03, reflecting increased volatility (TradingView, 2025). The Average True Range (ATR) also spiked from 0.01 to 0.05, indicating heightened market movement (TradingView, 2025). Trading volume data showed that the average hourly volume for $LIBRA increased from 5 million to 40 million tokens during the peak of the event, before settling at 20 million tokens post-correction (CoinGecko, 2025). On-chain metrics revealed that the number of active addresses peaked at 15,000 during the surge and dropped to 8,000 after the correction, indicating a cooling of market interest (Etherscan, 2025). This event underscores the importance of monitoring technical indicators and on-chain data for timely trading decisions.