A fresh set of regulations from the Argentine Central Bank now apply to people and businesses who bought cryptocurrencies as a hedge against currency devaluation. To prevent the exchange rate from rising, the bank will only sell dollars at the official rate to people and businesses that haven’t bought cryptocurrency in the 90 days before the transaction.
The communication, with the reference number 7552, states that access to the official dollar markets will be available to people and businesses who haven’t given money or other local assets to any person or legal entity, resident or non-resident, related or not, receiving as prior or subsequent consideration, directly or indirectly, by themselves or through a related, controlled party. 90 days must pass after the requirements are satisfied before buying dollars on the official market.
Local sources claim that the new restrictions are intended to close a loophole whereby some organisations take advantage of the exchange control channels to their advantage by buying cheap dollars at the official rate, using those dollars to buy cryptocurrencies, and then exchanging those cryptocurrencies at a higher rate. In order to prevent the above scenarios, the Argentinian Central Bank has imposed a new limitation on buyers of these dollars, which prevents them from purchasing any cryptocurrency for 90 days following the operation.
The majority of Argentines’ reactions were hostile, and a few even questioned the wisdom of such a move. Economist Agustin Monteverde criticised the reasoning.
“The measure is arbitrary and discretionary. It is not understood why whoever bought certain merchandise (because that is what cryptos are) cannot access the exchange market.”
Argentina is already looking to switch from traditional exchanges, which must disclose cryptocurrency transactions, to peer-to-peer-based exchanges, where the transactions can be private between two individuals. The move began to be implemented last July 22.