According to Argentina’s Foreign Minister, financial contracts can now be denominated in bitcoin or any other medium of exchange that the parties to the contract so choose. In addition, debtors will be obligated to “deliver the corresponding amount of the designated currency, whether the currency is legal tender in the Republic or not.”
Pressure Mounts on Milei to Dollarize
Argentinian Foreign Affairs Minister Diana Mondino has announced that financial contracts can now be denominated in Bitcoin. According to Mondino, residents can also settle contracts with any medium of exchange that the parties to the contract so choose.
Ratificamos y confirmamos que en Argentina se podrán pactar contratos en Bitcoin.
— Diana Mondino (@DianaMondino) December 21, 2023
Remarks by a top member of the recently elected Argentinian government are seen as an indication of President Javier Milei’s determination to honor some of the promises he made on the campaign trail. Milei, who is pro-bitcoin, repeatedly pledged to make significant changes if voters chose him to become the country’s next president. Some of Milei’s promises include the dollarization of the economy and the abolition of the central bank.
However, since his inauguration on Dec. 10, supporters of the Argentine president’s dollarization promise, including Johns Hopkins University professor Steve Hanke, have urged him to honor the pledge. The leader has so far not only refused to accede to these demands but has instead chosen to devalue the country’s currency, the peso, by more than 50%.
Return of the Barter Trade System
The remarks by Mondino, however, indicate that the Argentine government no longer sees the peso as the only legal medium of exchange.
“And also any other crypto and/or species such as kilos of steel or litres of milk. Art 766. – Obligation of the debtor. The debtor must deliver the corresponding amount of the designated currency, whether the currency is legal tender in the Republic or not,” the Foreign Minister added.
The other measures recently announced by the Milei government include cutting fuel and transport subsidies, trimming government ministries and the “modernization of labour law.”
Meanwhile, some social media users have ridiculed Mondino’s remarks saying they indicate that the government wants to follow in the footsteps of the Central African Republic — the only African country to make bitcoin legal tender.
X user Martha Lamartha mocked the Foreign Minister’s apparent call for a return to a barter trade system.
“Hello Diana Pressioa, I have a friend called Trisha who is a dentist. I can get you a shift for cleaning in exchange for 5 lemons, two bags, a karate kid video cassette and a replica of Burako the monster with the endless hole,” Lamartha wrote.
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