Bitcoin specialists cast doubt on Adorni's account of wealth surge

The explanations provided by Cabinet Chief Manuel Adorni regarding his cryptocurrency investments have once again come under scrutiny. 

Last week, blockchain specialist Fernando Molina analysed one of the digital wallets the official showed during a recent television interview with the LN+ television channel and estimated potential profits of around US$60,000 – far below the US$300,000 Adorni claimed to have earned via his investments. 

At the same time, programmer Maximiliano Firtman identified inconsistencies in asset declarations linked to the official’s cryptocurrency holdings.

According to a series of posts by Molina on social media, the Bitcoin address displayed onscreen by Adorni appears to have recorded only five transactions between 2017 and 2018. Based on those movements, the crypto expert estimated profits of around US$60,000.

The specialist explained that the wallet allegedly belonging to Adorni recorded two interactions with the exchange platform Bittrex, one associated with the purchase and the other with the sale of digital assets. 

Based on Molina’s analysis, he raised questions about the true ownership of the account and whether it actually belongs to the top government official.

Wallets linked to Adorni

This is not the first time Molina has analysed cryptocurrency transactions related to Adorni. In previous investigations he shared online, the expert identified transactions worth tens of thousands of dollars carried out during 2024, when the current official was already part of President Javier Milei’s national government.

According to Molina’s reconstruction, several digital addresses used for alleged charitable campaigns promoted by Adorni between 2021 and 2023 maintain links with other personal accounts. Among them, a wallet associated with Binance allegedly received around US$17,500 during 2024, while another address operating on the Ethereum network recorded inflows of close to US$36,000 within a few months.

Part of those funds, according to Molina’s analysis, were later transferred to accounts linked to cryptocurrency exchange platforms used in Argentina.

The investigation also identified a series of interconnected wallets within the Tron network. According to Molina, two of those accounts channelled funds to a wallet attributed to Adorni on Binance.

Those addresses, in turn, allegedly received approximately US$238,000 between July 2024 and February 2025 through 11 transfers originating from other wallets. 

The specialist noted that both Binance and Lemon have user identification mechanisms and that, if necessary, the courts could request information to determine the holders of the accounts involved.

Inconsistencies in asset declarations

Molina's observations were accompanied by another analysis published online by programmer and technology specialist Maximiliano Firtman, who reviewed asset declaration statements submitted by Adorni to Argentina’s Anti-Corruption Office.

Firtman pointed to a series of inconsistencies in the way his cryptocurrency holdings were reported. According to the analysis, the documentation submitted when he took office contains data that is difficult to interpret. 

In Adorni’s declaration filed at the beginning of 2023, a holding of "3,499.98 Bitcoin" appears, valued at approximately US$3,500. According to Firtman, that valuation would make little sense if it actually referred to Bitcoin, as that quantity of the cryptocurrency would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

For that reason, Firtman considered it more likely that the reference was to dollar-pegged stablecoins such as USDT, USDC or DAI, although Adorni’s documentation does not specify this.

Another observation concerns the declaration of a holding of "0.01 Bitcoin" valued at zero peso – this would also not match the real market value of the digital asset at that time.

Questions also remain regarding the declaration corresponding to the end of 2023. There, an asset identified as "Crypto Binance" appears for 11,019 units. Binance is an exchange platform rather than a cryptocurrency, meaning the description does not allow a precise determination of which asset the official held.

Firtman also noted that those assets were reported as having been acquired in March 2021, although they do not appear in Adorni’s initial asset declaration for 2023. 

According to the expert, the omission reveals inconsistencies in the declared evolution of Adorni's assets over his period in public office.

Judicial case

The revelations come as an investigation into alleged illicit enrichment continues in the federal courts under the jurisdiction of judge Ariel Lijo and prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita.

The case file already includes an order lifting Adorni’s banking, tax and financial secrecy protections. In addition, prosecutors requested information from financial institutions and digital platforms, including Mercado Pago, Brubank, Personal Pay, Open Bank and various cryptocurrency exchanges.

A video of a presentation given by Adorni in 2020 to the online platform Lemon has also resurfaced. During that talk, the official said that his first contact with Bitcoin occurred when the cryptocurrency was trading at around US$6,000 and he acknowledges that he had limited knowledge of the market at the time.

Some analysts interpreted those remarks as contradictory to later accounts, in which he claimed to have made substantial investments years earlier.

– TIMES/PERFIL