ARGENTINA

On Wednesday, August 11, the President of the Nation, Alberto Fernández, referred to cryptocurrencies and highlighted the benefits that their eventual incorporation as legal tender could represent to contain inflation.

It should be noted that these statements were personal statements and do not reflect that the Executive Branch is initiating a regulatory process on the subject, but rather the need to address an issue that is becoming established at an international level. In this sense, the statements made by the President of the Central Bank (BCRA in Spanish) Miguel Pesce, who, this week, had ruled out the possibility of creating a virtual currency, stand out.

Fernandez was asked about the possibility of Argentina following the path of El Salvador, the only country in the world that accepts Bitcoin as legal tender, or whether the Central Bank could issue a digital currency. In response, the President said: “It is possible. They say that the advantage of that is that the inflationary effect is largely nullified”. However, he warned: “It is also true that it generates insecurity because there have been, there have already been verified, embezzlements and swindles with the use of cryptocurrencies. It is a matter of care, I do not want to venture too far”.

Meanwhile, for the head of the BCRA, the Bitcoin “is not a financial asset because there is no asset underlying it, nor can it generate any profitability”. On the contrary, from the entity he presides, he expects that the interoperability between fintech and banks -virtual and bank accounts- will be the mechanism to digitalize the use of money. In addition, Pesce indicated that they are analyzing possible policies to warn unsophisticated investors about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies, while he expressed his interest in regulating the intersection of Bitcoin with the payment system and the foreign exchange market.