The cryptocurrency market was born with Bitcoin, but in Argentina the largest trading volume is not held by Bitcoin, but by the ever-desired dollar. Cryptocurrency platforms thus paradoxically benefited from volatile macroeconomic conditions, along with stock and election uncertainty. But what happens when the peso stabilizes and the need for dollarization diminishes?
In an interview with LA NACION, Alejo Blasco said: head of marketing main lemon exchange Explaining the importance of the country’s cryptocurrency stable coin Looking beyond the political context, we analyze why local users are at a disadvantage. trader Naturally, we are excited about the possibilities of Web3.
—The crypto market was born with Bitcoin, but in Argentina the so-called crypto dollar has become the most traded currency, especially during the election period. How will this trend impact platform activity?
—The past two election cycles, 2023 and 2025, have been full of elections. stable coin Much higher than normal. In 2023, we reached our previous operating record. stable coinespecially Election Sunday, PASO Sunday, General Election Sunday, and Runoff Sunday. These are all-time highs for Lemon’s virtual currency dollar sales.
This year, 2025, we saw the same trend again. I couldn’t beat my previous record, but I came pretty close. From 2019 to date, the day with the highest volume of crypto dollar transactions has coincided with Election Sunday. This shows that the virtual currency dollar is already a hot market for Argentines during the election period, especially on voting day, when there is no clear reference to the official price.
—Are Argentinian users trying to predict traditional market reactions?
-Yeah. But what we’re seeing is an increasingly educated user. For example, a few days before the election, the price of Bitcoin began to fall for reasons outside Argentina, which led to record purchases of volatile currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies.
Therefore, Argentinian users respond very well to contextual stimuli. If what is important is the dollar exchange rate, the record is recorded in that asset. But four or five days later, when Bitcoin drops, those same users turn to the cryptocurrency and set a record for purchases. I think Argentine users are like economists. amateur. This is also noticeable when compared to other countries in the region, which are starting to buy in a countercyclical manner.
—How do you compare to users from other Latin American countries?
–The opposite happens in Peru, for example. A month ago, they were left without a president and the dollar exchange rate rose, which was unthinkable to us. The crypto dollar is not the primary currency there, and Bitcoin stands out as a long-term store of value. That’s a completely different context.
Now we are starting operations in Colombia, where we see that the digital dollar is very important. In some cases, the cryptocurrency part isn’t that interesting to them, but they want to dollarize, and banks don’t offer an easy alternative, so cryptocurrency dollars appear as an option.
— Returning to the topic of the crypto dollar, in Argentina, the crypto dollar played a role in attracting many users to the trading platform. exchangepartly due to fluctuations in the peso and previously due to restrictions on dollar purchases. But what happens when your weight stabilizes?
—Sold a lot stable coin When we had stocks, we always asked ourselves: “What happens when stocks go away and people are free to buy dollars?” In fact, we had a Bitcoin-focused action plan in place in case that happened and people chose to buy dollars at banks and stopped using alternatives like Lemon. However, when looking at the manipulated volume curve, stable coinwill continue to rise regardless of the stock’s release.
-because?
—First, it is convenient because you can buy from home anytime, even on weekends or at 3 a.m. without relying on the banking market. Second, because more and more products are being built on top of it. stable coinserves as the rear rail. For example, in Brazil, PIX allows any user to download things like Lemon. app and pay themselves with their pesos Caipirinha At the beach. it’s behind it stable coin. The same thing happens with remittances and deposits from abroad. Currently, Lemon allows you to deposit dollars from bank accounts such as Santander, and the amount will be deposited into your next account. stable coin. All of these use cases mean that even if restrictions are lifted, operational volumes will continue to increase month-to-month and semester-by-semester.
— Last month, they were the most used crypto platform in Argentina. To what do they owe that credit?
—According to Sensor Tower, this is the same platform that all businesses use to see the active users of each device. app Looking at active mobile app sessions by country, Lemon was the most used mobile app last month. This is an important milestone and reflects the relevance of building a product that is not a 100% crypto product, but one that connects crypto to people’s daily lives.
Crypto is another layer of financial life. The entire ecosystem created by combining crypto parts with traditional payment systems such as QR and cards has attracted many users. Currently, 1,200,000 people use Lemon every month. It’s no longer an isolated trend. It is an application that is widely used not only in Argentina but also in Latin America.
—Which of these products will you focus on?
—Last year, we started investing in lemons with FIMA funds to increase the yield on the peso. If the weights are highly valued, you can leave the performance-generating weights in Lemon. You can also make cryptocurrencies work. We have started QR payment, which has been requested by many users. To date, more than 200,000 users in Argentina have paid with QR and received Bitcoin. cashbackthis is an important attraction.
There are two more launches this year. One is for developers, opening up the Lemon ecosystem and allowing them to create applications within the platform. This ties in with events such as DevConnect and the world of cryptocurrencies. The other is aimed at more traditional users, offering a similar alternative to cards and creating a new intersection between pesos and cryptocurrencies.
—You were talking about DevConnect. How do you analyze the current state of the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem in Argentina?
— Argentina plays a very important role in the adoption of cryptocurrencies and technology around the world. We believe that this country has the potential to become the crypto capital, or in this sense one of the most important countries in the world. I just spent 3 days in the Edge City of San Martin de los Andes. It was a traveling city. pop-up citywas organized by people in the Ethereum ecosystem, where 400 people from around the world settled in for a month to test or prototype what future society might look like. They’re thinking 100 years into the future, living in Patagonia, Argentina, and discussing topics that might seem pretty crazy today. DevConnect is another example. It allows you to interact with the entire global community in Argentina. These types of events strengthen and demonstrate the technological potential that Argentina has developed.
—What interested you most about Edge City?
—There were many panels and discussion spaces about the network state, a vision of what the future might hold. The argument is that just as monarchies were replaced by republics, we can think of what happens after republics. Blockchain and Web3 have the potential to become technological tools that help society develop. It may seem far away today, but there paperbooks, debates… at least expand the horizons of our thinking.
About The Author
