A few Latin American countries are among the top 20 when it comes to crypto adoption, according to Chainalysis’ “Geography of Cryptocurrency Report.” The report points out that the most popular use cases in the region are international remittances and protection against inflation, the latter being especially seen in Argentina, where inflation surpassed three digits last year.
Agustin Liserra, CEO of Argentinian crypto firm Num Finance, explained that Latin Americans need a tool for permissionless worldwide transactions, while also mitigating inflation and currency devaluation.
“These are things that people really suffer here in Argentina and in Latin America in general. I would also say that here in Argentina, with Milei’s government, inflation is decreasing rapidly. So we are below the one-digit inflation per month, and it is important to be clear on that because it doesn’t seem like a real success, but for Argentina, where last year the inflation was higher than 100%, to have annualized inflation in the month for maybe 50% or 60%, it is like an improvement,” said Liserra.
Despite the signs of recovery seen through the shrinking inflation numbers, Liserra highlights that consumption and economic activity as a whole are decreasing in Argentina. Moreover, some products are not available in the country, and crypto becomes the ideal ecosystem for “this kind of need.”
Num Finance offers a tokenized version of traditional finance products, such as commodities, stocks, and currency-backed stablecoins. Furthermore, they offer income products based on these stablecoins. Liserra explained that the focus on these products is related to their liquidity and the regulation around their markets, keeping customers protected.
“And then when talking about mitigating the inflation with high yield products, for example, what we are doing with Num seems to be really useful for people to have a stablecoin of the national currencies, such as the Argentinian peso, with a really high yield compared to inflation, and a tool that helps to mitigate that […] We believe that we in crypto still have a lot of room for growth in the financial real-world side, so we are focused on that.”
On the regulation side, Liserra underscored that no significant developments were made in Argentina after Milei became head of the executive power. However, a regulatory bill might come to light next year.
“There is no still regulation regarding obligations to inform the regulator about the operations the clients are carrying out with certain exchanges or things like this, but only a registry to let the regulator know who the players in the ecosystem are. And then the idea is to start working with the government and to elaborate a digital asset service provider regulation. I don’t think this regulation is seeing light this year, maybe the next one.”
