{"id":53043,"date":"2025-10-28T09:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/argentine-stablecoin-use-surged-ahead-of-president-mileis-midterm-election-win\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T09:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:49:18","slug":"argentine-stablecoin-use-surged-ahead-of-president-mileis-midterm-election-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/argentine-stablecoin-use-surged-ahead-of-president-mileis-midterm-election-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentine Stablecoin Use Surged Ahead of President Milei&#8217;s Midterm Election Win"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<h4 color=\"#333\">In brief<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Argentines swapped pesos for dollar stablecoins on Sunday, as locals expeted ARS to plummet during the midterm elections.<\/li>\n<li>President Javier Milei faced a make-or-break election amid declining approval ratings tied to corruption scandals. <\/li>\n<li>As the results became clear, a LATAM crypto app recorded its highest-ever volume in a single hour as the peso grew stronger.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Argentine President Javier Milei\u2019s party secured a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/argentines-vote-high-stakes-test-mileis-libertarian-vision-2025-10-26\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span>surprise, but decisive victory<\/span><\/a><span> in the nation\u2019s midterm legislative elections on Sunday. And citizens concerned about the potential election results purchased hoards of U.S. dollar stablecoins over the weekend, with experts noting a significant surge in \u201ccrypto dollar\u201d usage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Facundo Werning, LATAM head for stablecoin issuer Agora and former Tether expansion manager for Argentina, told <\/span><i><span>Decrypt<\/span><\/i><span> that he saw a \u201cnotable increase in volume across the USD stablecoin to [Argentine peso] trading pair,\u201d with a conservative estimate of $13.4 million in trading volume on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Similarly, the South American crypto app <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/lemonapp_ar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener\"><span>Lemon<\/span><\/a><span> attracted its third-highest single-day volume of all time on Sunday and the highest hour of volume ever at 9pm local time\u2014when the results were announced.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Argentine peso is a notoriously unstable currency. It hit a record low of 1,491.50 pesos per U.S. dollar on Friday, per <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/americas\/argentine-markets-expected-rally-after-mileis-election-victory-2025-10-27\/\" target=\"_blank\"><i><span>Reuters<\/span><\/i><\/a><span>, despite a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Why-Is-the-US-Bailing-Out-Argentina\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener\"><span>$40 billion bailout package<\/span><\/a><span> from President Trump. However, it appears that some citizens felt the peso would\u2019ve crashed even harder if Milei\u2019s right-wing party La Libertad Avanza (LLA) had not won the most seats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Milei is a divisive figure in Argentina due to his radical economic plans and his ties to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/aug\/27\/javier-milei-sister-argentina-alleged-kickbacks\" target=\"_blank\"><span>corruption scandals<\/span><\/a><span>\u2014including the infamous <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/resources\/what-is-libra-the-solana-meme-coin-that-sparked-a-political-scandal\" target=\"_blank\"><span>LIBRA<\/span><\/a><span> meme coin. As such, his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.as-coa.org\/articles\/approval-tracker-argentinas-president-javier-milei\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener\"><span>approval rating<\/span><\/a><span> has declined in recent months, making the midterms a make-or-break election in the eyes of many.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Santiago Vivanco, an Argentine who works in finance, told <\/span><i><span>Decrypt<\/span><\/i><span> that he doesn\u2019t know anyone who went into the election with large amounts of money in the Argentine peso.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Across the weekend, the chances that left-wing party Uni\u00f3n por la Patria would win the most seats peaked at 55% on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/polymarket.com\/event\/which-party-wins-most-seats-in-argentina-deputies-election?tid=1761584670108\" target=\"_blank\"><span>Polymarket<\/span><\/a><span>. Vivanco said that he was anticipating the peso would crash if Uni\u00f3n por la Patria had won, claiming its left-wing economic policies would be bad for the peso.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Equally, Trump said the U.S. would not \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cg7n82gd7pvo\" target=\"_blank\"><span>waste our time<\/span><\/a><span>\u201d helping Argentina if Milei had lost. As such, citizens were purchasing USD stablecoins to avoid a potential crash.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It&#8217;s important to note that exchange rates in Argentina aren\u2019t straightforward. There are multiple rates, including the \u201cofficial rate\u201d available at banks, but citizens are limited to withdrawing only $200 a month; the unofficial \u201cblue dollar,\u201d which is the improved exchange rate offered at street exchanges; and the \u201ccrypto dollar,\u201d which is determined by supply and demand via stablecoins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A major difference between these three rates is that the crypto dollar never stops operating, while the official banks and unofficial street exchanges shut shop during off-hours. Therefore, the crypto dollar becomes the best way to track the price of the peso, especially during weekend elections.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis behavior turned the crypto dollar into something more than just a savings tool,\u201d a spokesperson for Lemon told <\/span><i><span>Decrypt<\/span><\/i><span>. \u201cIt became a real-time thermometer of Argentina\u2019s economic and political pulse when the traditional market is offline.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As expectations shifted, votes were counted, and the results were revealed, the crypto dollar fluctuated in valuation. Argentine citizens swapped pesos for stablecoins and stablecoins for pesos, in an attempt to squeeze the most out of their volatile local currency.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A Lemon <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lemon.me\/en\/elecciones\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow external noopener\"><span>dashboard<\/span><\/a><span> tracking the election showed that on Sunday, the local currency hit a low exchange rate of 1,572.50 ARS per crypto dollar at approximately 2pm local time. This quickly changed as the results became more apparent, hitting a high of 1,350 ARS per dollar at 10am on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cOver the weekend, we initially saw the crypto dollar rise dramatically, and as results came in on Sunday, we saw it plummet against the peso,\u201d Werning told <\/span><i><span>Decrypt<\/span><\/i><span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis signals optimistic market sentiment,\u201d the Lemon spokesperson added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It appears that markets have reacted favorably to Milei\u2019s victory, with the peso looking stronger Monday than at its Friday close.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<h3>Daily Debrief Newsletter<\/h3>\n<p>Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In brief Argentines swapped pesos for dollar stablecoins on Sunday, as locals expeted ARS to plummet during the midterm elections. [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":53044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tien-dien-tu"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hbbgroup.net\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}