The peso lost its value by 15% against stablecoins DAI and tether on several leading local exchanges after a ministerial shuffle. Both stablecoins increased in value from ARS 245 on Friday to ARS 280 on weekend.
After the resignation of Argentina’s economy minister Martin Guzmán in the midst of an economic emergency, Argentines purchased between two and three times the number of stablecoins they do on a normal weekend.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez and Vice President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had a fight over the direction of the country’s economy which led to the resignation of Martin Guzmán and the appointment of Silvina Batakis as the new minister of economy.
Three significant crypto exchanges told a news publishing house that consumers were hoping to safeguard their positions against a potential devaluation of the Argentine peso (ARS), whose buying power has decreased over the previous year as current global inflation hits the country even harder.
“Whenever there is one of these news stories in Argentina, because of the 24/7 nature of crypto, it is the first market where Argentina starts to look for a price for the U.S. dollar. This drives volumes up,” says the CEO of Ripio, Sebastian Serrano.
There were even speculations that the government could announce a foreign exchange holiday on Monday to relax markets. most Argentine exchanges increased the spreads between bid and ask prices to 18% due to the lack of price references for the U.S. dollar over the weekend. Generally, they are around 2%, which makes it a 9-fold increase in the spread.