Argentines Turn to Bitcoin to Protect Funds During Crisis: Survey

By Jose Antonio Lanz

After recently suffering one of the worst financial crises in their history, some Argentineans have managed to preserve their purchasing power by exchanging cash for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

A newly published online survey revealed that 74% of Argentina's population believes that, under the current political and economic conditions, cryptocurrencies are the best possible way to protect their funds. Likewise, 68% of those surveyed consider crypto investments to be “extremely safe.”

The online survey, commissioned by Bitcoin marketplace Paxful and conducted by Cripto 247, featured 1,113 respondents throughout Argentina, aged between 18 and 55. The full methodology was not published, but given that Cripto 247 is a popular cryptocurrency media outlet in Argentina, the results aren't altogether unsurprising.

That, however, makes some of the other results intriguing. While most of the survey respondents see digital assets as a solution during a financial crisis, a significant percentage don't feel they understand how cryptocurrencies work, limiting further growth of cryptocurrency use in the country. Twenty-four percent of respondents did not want to invest in crypto due to a lack of familiarity with the technology; nearly eight percent professed fear of using an unknown currency.

Argentineans’ crypto usage has received a healthy bump from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"During this year we have observed a major increase in the operations carried out by Argentine users on our platform, especially since the pandemic started, registering an increase of 37.5% in the volume compared to the previous periods," said Magdiela Rivas, Paxful's Latin America manager, in a blog post.

Bitcoin P2P trading volume in Argentina in USD equivalent. Image: Useful Tulips

That’s not limited to the Paxful platform. Since the beginning of 2020, the country has registered record trading volume alongside Venezuela, the only country in the world that fares worse on Bloomberg’s Economic Misery Index.

Bitcoin was born in response to a global financial crisis. This latest global health crisis could prove to be a turning point for its global adoption, but more data is needed.

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