- Argentina Peso has been falling, and residents are turning to crypto.
- P2P exchanges are gaining more trading volume from Argentinians.
- The country recently imposed a 35 percent tax on US dollar transactions in a bid to save the Peso.
The national currency of Argentina, the Peso, has continued to decline, and it appears residents in the country have opted to convert their fiat holdings into digital currencies in order to hedge against the falling value of the fiat currency. This is quite evident as peer-to-peer or P2P exchanges are gaining more trading volume from Argentinians.
P2P exchanges record more trades
The data provided by Coindance, a community-driven Bitcoin statistics, and services platform, P2P exchange have been recording more crypto purchases from Argentinians over the past weeks, while the national currency continued to drop. Popular P2P exchanges like LocalBitcoins and Paxful could see more than 80 million and 6 million in volume respectively over the past week.
In a recent survey, the P2P exchange Paxful pointed out the growing awareness and interest in digital currency amongst residents in Argentina. Paxful noted that a significant percentage of the residents now view cryptocurrencies as a saving mechanism, which could also help to uphold the value of their money.
Argentina’s tax measure on USD transactions
Last week, the Argentina government had reportedly imposed a 35 percent taxation on all US dollar transactions in the country. The new measure was all aimed at intervening for the falling value of Argentina’s Peso. However, it wasn’t that effective earlier, as the currency further dropped by 3 percent according to a Bloomberg report at the time.
Before the imposition of the 35 percent tax on US dollar transactions, the country reportedly has an existing tax measure for all USD-denominated purchases. The so-called solidarity tax was reportedly designed to collect about 30 percent in tax from any foreign currency purchases made by the residents, especially USD-denominated purchases made via credit or debit cards.
