The technical memorandum the government introduced to the Argentine Congress contains policies that discourage using cryptocurrencies. The executive director of NGO Bitcoin Argentina said that banning crypto assets is not the solution.
Non-government organization (NGO) Bitcoin Argentina requested the government for information on its recent agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They addressed the request directly to the office of Martín Guzmán, the Minister of Economy.
The NGO referred to a section of the agreement between Argentina and the IMF dealing with policies to discourage the cryptocurrency market. The non-profit association asked Guzmán to explain the government measures regarding the new program with the international credit organization.
The government signed the above agreement in late January but introduced the technical memorandum to the Argentine Congress a few days ago. That made clear that they committed themselves to slow down the cryptocurrency sector.
The document has a section with Strengthening Financial Resilience policies, whose first objective is to discourage using cryptocurrencies. They stated that they sought to prevent money laundering, informality, and disintermediation.
A wave of comments has arisen on social networks due to that controversial statement. Santiago Siri, the founder of Democracy Earth, said the difference in Argentina was between the offline and online generations.
Javier Madariaga, the director of NGO Bitcoin Argentina, highlighted that criminals use more fiat money than cryptocurrencies. In 2021, the executive said that only 0.15 percent of the operations associated with illicit activities involved crypto assets. He also stressed that illegal transactions with physical currencies exceed that figure.
NGO Bitcoin Argentina Considers that Banning Cryptocurrencies Is Not the Solution
Madariaga indicated that the government should coordinate the public and private sectors, not ban cryptocurrencies. He added that they were concerned the authorities discouraged a technology the population adopted massively.
NGO Bitcoin Argentina asked the Minister of Economy for all the documents related to the policies on the cryptocurrency sector agreed with the IMF.
The secretary of Innovation and Digital Transformation of Buenos Aires, Diego Fernández, said the local government does not seek to stop the development of cryptocurrencies. The official believes that users will go from 300 million to 2,000 million users if the industry continues to expand.
The non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the potential of decentralized technologies requested the government to give reasons to discourage cryptocurrencies. They also want the authorities to disclose whether crypto assets were the subject of the negotiation between Argentina and the IMF.
Javier Madariaga stated that NGO Bitcoin Argentina did not request public information to affect the negotiation between the government and the IMF. He explained that they want it to allow the community to learn about the arguments and policies that they want to carry out regarding crypto assets. The director of the non-profit association said they wanted to work alongside the actors that could help the industry grow.
The use of decentralized cryptocurrencies has grown significantly worldwide, and governments are aware of that. Regulators have created laws to control or prohibit their use by citizens, arguing that criminals do illegal activities with them. However, various studies indicate that more fraud cases involve fiat money than crypto assets.
By Alexander Salazar
