Record Inflation in Argentina Leads to Crypto Credit Card Boom

Argentinean cryptocurrency exchange Lemon Cash is increasing the issuance of peso- and bitcoin-denominated credit cards to 3 million amid rush demand among locals.

The annual inflation rate of the Argentine economy has reached 50%, according to Bloomberg. By the end of the year, inflation should reach 55%. This has already caused panic among the citizens of the country, who began to feverishly look for new financial instruments to hedge growing risks. They see investments in cryptocurrency assets as more profitable than investments in real estate and precious metals, where liquidity is limited by consumer demand.

An important factor influencing the popularity of cryptocurrencies among Argentines is the possibility of making anonymous transactions. In this way, people try to avoid potential government restrictions and become independent of the monetary policy pursued by the Argentine government.

On the launch day of Visa cryptocurrency credit cards in November 2021, the Argentine crypto exchange Lemon Cash delivered 100,000 cards to users at once. In the context of the escalating financial crisis, the cryptocurrency exchange plans to issue an additional almost 3 million cards. The cards allow you to make transactions in pesos and bitcoins.

A spokesman for Lemon Cash said that the deteriorating financial situation in Argentina indicates that all those millions of cards will be in demand in the near future:

“The mission of the company is to flood Argentina with bitcoin and enable people to enter the world of the future.”

At the beginning of February 2022, Binance announced plans to launch a cryptocurrency card in Ukraine with conversion into hryvnias. Last July, Deserve launched the Visa system credit card in partnership with BlockFi, a crypto asset financial services provider.

Source: Bits

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