Argentina's inflation has hit 55% this year, caused by a collapse in confidence in the peso. As a result, Argentinians are turning to bitcoin as a hedge to further monetary collapse. No matter what the central bank does, inflation continues to rise. Notably, Tim Draper met with the president of Argentina some time ago and suggested the country adopt bitcoin as the national currency.
Good for them. I remember when we had such a little inflation, things were so good but we didn't know it...
Like us, they are probably simply seeking refuge for their savings.
The best thing their central bank should do is: Nothing, leave the coin free, and never ever "print" more, like we did. While last year they reached 55%, what do you think us did closing above one MILLION percent? Estimates indicate this year (should the de-facto gov remain in power) inflation will reach 10 MILLION percent.
Even with our soaring inflation (and with various media stating things like in this article) people here are yet to use openly use bitcoin for direct transactions. Everything is come and go from fiat. So the exchanges are the ones benefiting the most, unfortunately.
Argentinians fear the word "corralito". We have been put under that for more than 4 years now... Currently you are only allowed to withdraw barely the equivalent to 1 USD per day from a bank. They keep bashing Macri, only because they don't have Maduro; but they should remember their own history.
If Argentina sticks to free market economy, and doesn't go the way of protectionism or socialism, and instead pick classic liberalism or even better adopt Austrian economics, the country will recover, and i wouldn't worry the least. But if resulting from this, a socialist has a chance to return to power, then run for the hills (the neighbor countries).