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What Actually Happened With Law 27.802?Why Did Banks Push Back So Hard?Where Does This Leave Crypto in Argentina?Is Argentina Likely to Legalise Crypto Salary Payments in the Future?ResourcesFrequently Asked Questions
Despite widespread reports to the contrary, Argentina has not made it legal to pay salaries in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. A provision that would have allowed salary deposits into digital wallets, including crypto wallets, was removed from the Labor Modernization Law (Law 27.802) before it passed.
As of March 2026, Argentine law still requires wages to be deposited into conventional bank accounts.
What Actually Happened With Law 27.802?
President Javier Milei signed Law 27.802 on March 6, a wide-ranging labor reform that amends Argentina’s Employment Contract Law and related regulatory regimes. The government positioned it as a tool to reduce litigation, lower hiring costs, and bring informal workers into the formal economy. The Senate approved it with 42 votes in favour, 28 against, and two abstentions.
The law does allow employers to pay wages in foreign currency or partially in kind, meaning food, accommodation, or other goods and services. It also allows contracts to be renegotiated around productivity metrics and performance targets. These changes are real and significant.
What it does not do is allow salary payments into digital wallets or crypto accounts.
The Provision That Did Not Make It
The original bill included Article 35, which would have permitted salary deposits into digital wallets, opening the door to crypto-based wage payments. The article was removed in February 2026 after heavy lobbying from traditional banking associations, which argued that digital wallet providers lack the regulatory and supervisory frameworks required to safely handle salary deposits.
Lawmakers accepted that argument, and the provision was stripped from the final bill before it passed. The requirement that wages must be deposited into conventional bank accounts remains in place.
Why Did Banks Push Back So Hard?
The banking sector’s opposition was direct and coordinated. Their core argument was that digital wallet providers, including those that handle crypto, do not operate under the same prudential regulations as licensed banks. Without equivalent oversight, they contended, routing salaries through these platforms would expose workers to financial risk.
That position reflects a broader tension in Argentina’s financial system, where digital wallet adoption has grown rapidly but regulatory frameworks have not kept pace. Fintech platforms and crypto apps are widely used, but they sit in a different legal category than deposit-taking banks, and that distinction proved decisive when the salary provision came to a vote.
Where Does This Leave Crypto in Argentina?
Cryptocurrency is legal in Argentina. Individuals can buy, sell, and hold crypto freely, and can use it for private, non-salary agreements.
What is not permitted, at least for now, is the use of crypto or digital wallets for official salary deposits. The distinction matters because employment law in Argentina governs how wages must be paid, and that framework still points to bank accounts only.
Adoption Is Rising Regardless
The failed Article 35 has not stopped Argentines from integrating crypto into their financial lives through other channels. Nearly 30% of Argentinians owned some form of cryptocurrency in 2024, and about 60% of the country’s total crypto transaction volume involved stablecoins like $USDT and USDC.
Argentina received $318.8 billion in crypto value in 2025, with growth approaching 250% year over year. Average monthly crypto users were four times higher than during the 2021 bull market, according to a report from Argentine crypto firm Lemon.
Much of that growth came not from speculation but from practical use: Argentine fintech companies connected stablecoin rails to Brazil’s PIX instant payment system, allowing tourists and businesses to pay in pesos while $USDT settled transactions behind the scenes. That integration alone contributed to 5.4 million crypto app downloads in Argentina during 2025.
Is Argentina Likely to Legalise Crypto Salary Payments in the Future?
The appetite is clearly there. Digital wallet adoption is high, distrust in the traditional banking system is a consistent feature of Argentine financial culture, and the tech infrastructure for crypto-based wage payments already exists in the market. The failure of Article 35 was a legislative setback, not a permanent policy position.
The more likely path forward involves the regulatory treatment of digital wallet providers. If fintech platforms and crypto custodians can demonstrate compliance with a supervisory framework comparable to licensed banks, the political resistance from the banking sector loses its strongest argument. Several fintech companies are already pushing for exactly that kind of regulatory equivalence.
For now though, the legal requirement is clear: salaries go into bank accounts.
Resources
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Report by Buenos Aires Herald: Pay in food, changes to holidays, and a time bank system: government files labor reform bill
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Report by Buenos Aires Times: Explainer: Key points of Milei’s newly passed labour reform package
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Research by Signzy: Argentina Cryptocurrency Laws 2026: Overview and Core Laws
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Report by CoinDesk: Latin America’s crypto user growth outpaced U.S. by 3x in 2025, report shows
- Report by DL News: Brazilian vacations overtake inflation as driver of Argentina’s crypto adoption: report
