With Argentina facing rising prices and economic turmoil amid heavy capital restrictions imposed by the central bank designed to stablizie the national currency, Bitcoin trading volume has reached an all-time high on peer-to-peer crypto trading platform LocalBitcoins.
While the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic cracked down last week, limiting US dollar purchases to $200 per month and prohibiting all Bitcoin purchases using credit cards, crypto investors and traders turned to LocalBitcoins, where trading volume increased from $14.3 million in Argentine pesos to $16.4 million for the week ending November 2, breaking the all-time high of $15.4 million set in July, according to data compiled by Coin.dance.
With tightened capital controls dampening the movement of fiat in Argentina, Bitcoin is once again trading at a huge premium, equivalent to as much as $2,000 for a single Bitcoin.
Reports Jinse,
“As of [November 4], CoinMarketCap showed Bitcoin prices of $9,238, but at the same time in Argentina, [local crypto exchange] Ripi showed that the bid and ask prices for Bitcoin were 724,135.79 pesos (about $12,160) and 634,025.65 pesos (about $10,647).
With Ripi showing today’s Bitcoin price (759,867.43 pesos, about $12,759) to the Bitcoin price displayed on the CMC ($9,238), Bitcoin is 38% more expensive in Argentina.”
Argentina’s new Peronist administration will assume power on December 10 and is expected to negotiate a deal with the International Monetary Fund to try to mitigate the country’s unsustainable debt.
