By Hernan Nessi and Agustin Geist

BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) – In downtown Buenos Aires’ Crypstation café, young Argentines enjoy their pastries and lattes surrounded by neon signs and real-time price quotes for cryptocurrency. You can also pay the bill in digital currency.

The South American country’s savers are becoming more attracted to cryptocurrency as a way to counter years of inflation.

“The local climate is driving people to protect capital in cryptocurrencies, so we see growth acceleration up,” stated Mauro Liberman (39), one of the co-founders of the cafe that promotes digital tender.

He said that Latin America has a huge growth potential and most people were using it to save money. It’s an avalanche and it won’t stop.

Americas Market Intelligence reported that cryptocurrency penetration in Argentina reached 12% according to an April report. This is more than twice as high as Brazil or Mexico. Adoption in hyperinflation-plagued Venezuela is even higher, according to a recent Chainalysis report. (Graphic: Argentina: crypto is king – https://graphics.reuters.com/CRYPTO-CURRENCY/ARGENTINA/gdpzyeybxvw/chart.png)

“I LOSE LESSER”

There is also a problem with confidence in local currency. It has declined 14% against USD this year. The capital controls restricting foreign exchange to $200 each month are also encouraging crypto adoption.

The annual inflation rate rose to 58% and could reach 70% in April. This makes crypto very attractive despite the crash that has seen TerraUSD, stablecoin, slide and bitcoin plummet to a 16-month lowest.

Victor Levrero is 44 and an IT professional in Buenos Aires. He invests extra money into bitcoin and stablecoin each month after the $200 quota has been used to convert pesos from dollars. Fixed-term, peso savings aren’t something that he considers.

He said, “Basically it’s because my losses are less.” It doesn’t work with an Argentine inflation rate of 60-70% and fixed term payments between 30-35%.

Local crypto platforms, such as Lemon Cash and Buenbit, told Reuters they had seen a huge increase in users during the past year.

Some adopters have been careful to heed the warnings of the central bank about investing in volatile digital currency.

Marcelo Vila is a 37-year-old computer technician and self-employed. He said that for now, he had only a very small amount of Ether or bitcoin.

He said, “The goal is to increase the percentage of crypto funds.” However, until I have a better understanding of the crypto market I won’t be able to put much money in it.

Sebastian Carsorio (23), a 23-year-old from Escobar, outside of the capital, is very optimistic. With the help of computer parts that he had repurposed from his previous work, he is trying to lift himself out poverty.

He said that he fixed the problems and set up a computer to do the work. He began with bitcoin and later moved to Bitcoin, which enabled him to purchase some land and return to school.

Carsorio stated, “I will keep mining because it is a good method of saving,” explaining that mining provides a higher exchange rate than what he could get on the streets. Mining has helped me save many times when money was tight.

Argentina: crypto is king (Interactive graphic) https://tmsnrt.rs/38x0Kdi

Argentina: crypto is king https://tmsnrt.rs/3MqdpgK

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