Bitcoin-friendly Javier Milei wins Argentina presidential election

November 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Milei won over 55% of the votes with 99% of the votes counted in the run-off presidential election.

Argentina's Bitcoin (BTC)-friendly Javier Milei won the country’s presidential run-off election on Nov. 19, beating out his opponent Sergio Massa.

With almost 99% of the vote counted, Milei won over 55% of the votes with a nearly 3 million vote lead according to Bloomberg data.

Massa, the country’s minister of economy, called Milei to congratulate him on the victory after more than 90% of the votes were counted — before the announcement of the first official results. Milei will take office on December 10.

*With nearly 100% of the vote counted, Milei had an over 10 percentage point lead on Massa. Source: Bloomberg*

Argentina's long-lasting inflation crisis has been a heated topic in the South American country, with the Argentine peso recording over a 140% increase in annual inflation in the last 12 months.

Milei has been vocal about his criticisms toward the country’s central bank, referring to it as a scam and a “mechanism by which politicians cheat the good people with inflationary tax.”

He’s referred to Bitcoin as a movement toward “the return of money to its original creator, the private sector.”

However, he has not signaled any intention to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country.

VIVA LA LIBERTAD CARAJO pic.twitter.com/WzzzZaTcsz
— Javier Milei (@JMilei) November 19, 2023

Massa’s views on the money, banking and cryptocurrency industry appear to be polar opposite to Milei.

In October, he pledged to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) if elected to “solve” Argentina’s long-lasting inflation crisis.

Massa won the first round of Argentina’s presidential election in October. However, it wasn’t enough to win the presidency outright, triggering the final run-off vote.

Prior to that, Milei won Argentina’s primary election against Messi and other candidates in August.

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Bitcoiners pitch draft bill to preserve blockchain, decentralization in Argentina

November 12, 2023 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin argentina

The group, “Bitcoin Argentina,” previously rejected the idea that regulation was needed in the cryptocurrency industry.

Non-government organization Bitcoin Argentina presented a draft bill proposing to regulate the cryptocurrency market in a way that preserves decentralization and strengthens public trust.

The proposed legal framework was pitched by Bitcoin Argentina's president Ricardo Mihura at LABITCONF 2023 in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires on Nov. 10. Bitcoin Argentina previously dismissed the idea that the industry needed to be regulated. However, the Bitcoin advocates now argue it is necessary to not only preserve blockchain but also hold bad actors accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

“We have always rejected attempts to regulate the crypto economy, but this time we set ourselves the goal of giving a positive response, with only two purposes: preserving decentralization and protecting savings and public trust.” Mihura added:

“We cannot close our eyes to the number of dishonest actors and projects that circulate with the blockchain brand.”

*Ricardo Mihura speaking at the cryptocurrency regulation panel at LABITCONF 2023. Source: LABITCONF.*

The first article of the legal framework focuses on separating cryptocurrency platforms and service providers into three categories to ascertain property rights — decentralized, local centralized or willing to dialogue with authorities, and global centralized.

Platforms that fall under one of the two centralized categories would be allowed to operate freely, but its customers would be granted “the broadest possible judicial protection,” guaranteeing the right to claim damages in the event of a company downfall.

It is understood that Argentina’s judiciary will not intervene on failures from decentralized platforms.

Courts will decide whether or not a cryptocurrency platform is sufficiently decentralized when resolving claims put forward by allegedly injured customers.

Mihura stressed that imposing an outright ban on cryptocurrencies — which some governments have tried to do — simply wouldn’t work given the global nature of blockchain:

“Not even the United States can effectively prohibit the operation of the unlicensed cryptoeconomy [...] Argentina has no possibility of prohibiting its residents from operating in global environments [so] we believe that it does not make sense to propose a top-down ban and we choose to propose the best that the law can offer to its citizens.”

“This includes those directly responsible and all those who profit in the marketing chain of a fraud, until the final victim,” Mihura added.

Blockchain Argentina’s proposed bill comes one week ahead of Argentina’s presidential run-off election between Sergio Massa, the country’s economy minister and Javier Milei, an economist turned politician who wants to abolish Argentina’s central bank and adopt the United States dollar.

Argentina is currently battling an inflation crisis. Over the last 12 months, the country has recorded the fourth largest annual inflation rate in the world at 121.7%.

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Argentinian presidential candidate wants CBDCs to ‘solve’ hyperinflation

October 3, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Argentine Peso

Sergio Massa’s stance on central bank digital currencies appears to be in complete opposition to Javier Milei, a pro-Bitcoin candidate who wants to abolish Argentina’s central bank.

Argentinian presidential candidate Sergio Massa has pledged to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) if elected to “solve” Argentina’s long-lasting inflation crisis.

“I am clear that inflation is a huge problem in Argentina,” the country’s second-leading candidate said in an Oct. 2 presidential debate, before outlining how he plans to “solve” the country’s ravaging inflation:

“We are going to launch the digital currency in Argentina. [...] We are going to do it globally for all of Argentina accompanied by a laundering law that allows those who have money abroad to bring it and use it freely without new taxes in parallel.”

Massa, who currently serves as Minister of Economy, shut down the idea that Argentina should move to the United States dollar:

“Dollarization is what generates the temptation of the dollar. Be patriots [and] defend our currency, do not promote the use of it [the U.S. dollar],” he said.

Argentina’s general election will take place on Oct. 22.

Two of three major voting polls suggest Massa is ever so slightly trailing Javier Milei, a pro-Bitcoin and anti-central bank candidate who won Argentina’s primary election in August.

*Argentinian voter preferences across three separate polls. Source: AS/COA.*

Data from American think tank AS/COA suggests that Massa will likely receive the most support in the Buenos Aires province — home to 16.6 million of the country’s 46 million residents — while Milei has majority backing in the more rural parts of the country.

Milei has previously signaled wanting to adopt the United States dollar as Argentina’s currency. As an economist and libertarian, Milei has long been a skeptic of central banking. Part of his campaign promise is to abolish Argentina’s central bank.

Milei previously referred to Bitcoin as a reaction against “central bank scammers” and that the Argentine peso allows politicians to scam Argentines with inflation.

Argentina’s third-leading presidential candidate, Patricia Bullrich would reportedly pursue a currency regime where the Argentine peso and U.S. dollar co-exist as legal tender if she wins the election.

*Value of the Argentine peso denominated in U.S. dollars since 2003. Source: Google Finance.*

The Argentine peso has fallen over 99% against the U.S. dollar since December 2023.

Most data suggests that Argentinian’s inflation is the third highest in the world, only trailing Venezuela and Lebanon.

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Sergio Massa