The statement contradicts alleged leaks hinting at a possible deregulation of digital assets, with bank sources claiming a draft to allow banks to offer crypto services was in the works.
This means the 2022 BCRA’s ban on financial institutions offering crypto services will hold, with its elimination depending on the state of the economy before an upcoming presidential election.
Curutchet acknowledged that Argentina’s economic standing offered limited leverage to advance these solutions, but stressed that these were valid issues to discuss.
“In a country where the perception of vulnerability and fragility has decreased significantly, more than today, and with full economic freedom, these are issues on which progress must be made. Today we have a level of fragility that does not allow us to advance as much. But I think there is a pending agenda for later,” Curutchet concluded.
Even so, banking groups are advancing their own stablecoins projects to offer programmable money features for institutional money management, featuring treasury management operations, payments conditioned on on-chain events, and collateralized credit management.
These conglomerates are developing these initiatives through separate companies to respect the current ban. Banking integration would be delayed until the central bank lifts the ongoing prohibitions.
Even with this prohibition, Argentina became the second-largest crypto hub in Latam, receiving over $88.5 billion in crypto value in the 12 months ending June 30, according to Chainalysis.