"Apart from Afghanistan, it seems that Argentina is also finding the benefits of crypto to the economy."
While the cryptocurrency market is experiencing a bearish phase, Argentina is emerging to be a crypto -friendly country in terms of its acceptance.
It all started from the problem of skepticism over the central bank as well as the issue of overspending by the government which has caused Argentina to struggle with inflation since 2016 again.
As a result, the depreciation of the Argentine Peso has caused the purchasing power of the people to disappear and a total of 37.3% of its citizens live below the poverty line.
Yet at a time when all hope seems to be gone, cryptocurrencies are seen as the Argentine people’s top choice to protect themselves from inflation rates as high as 60%.
According to an Americas Market Intelligence report, even though Argentina’s central bank banned the operation of digital assets at its financial institutions, cryptocurrency acceptance in the country has doubled by 12%.
Argentina is also seen topping the list of crypto usage rates in the Latin American region followed by Peru and Mexico.
Among the cryptocurrencies that are the choice of Argentines, of course, the mother of all cryptocurrencies is Bitcoin (BTC) and other stablecoin.
It is understood that crypto assets are used to store value in United States (US) dollars, especially when the Argentine government imposed strict capital controls on foreign exchange services.
In fact, during the visit of Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin last December, he noted that the use and acceptance of crypto is growing significantly in Argentina.
On the other hand, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez is seen taking a cautious approach to digital asset regulation.
In an interview, Fernandez noted that there is still a strong debate around the world about crypto and it is forcing him to take a more cautious stance.
Even so, he did not rule out the possibility that crypto also ‘has its advantages’ because ‘it can help curb inflation’ and the currency is ‘more stable’.
