Argentines purchased two to three times as many stablecoins as they do on a typical weekend, due the resignation of Argentina’s economy minister Martin Guzmán this Saturday.
Amid the ongoing economic crisis, three major crypto exchanges said that consumers were looking to hedge against a potential devaluation of the Argentine peso (ARS).
The ARS depreciated about 15% against the stablecoins DAI and tether on several leading local exchanges’ platforms after Guzmán resignations.
Over the weekend, Tether and DAI rose from ARS 245 to ARS 280.
Sebastian Serrano, CEO of the Argentina-based crypto exchange Ripio said, “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.”
Argentine exchange Buenbit said that ‘many people’ used their DAI as collateral to obtain loans in Argentine pesos and purchase more DAI as protection against a potential peso devaluation.
The exchange 300% increase in trading on Sunday compared to the same day in previous weeks.
Most Argentine exchanges also increased the spreads between bid and ask prices to 18%, when in general they are around 2%.
The head of trading and strategy at the Argentina-based crypto exchange Lemon Cash, Andrés Vilella Weisz tweeted, “Due to demand and without a reference replacement price, prices rose and spreads widened.”
He also said that after Guzman’s resignation, demand for crypto dollars was strong.
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