What cryptos do Argentines buy?
Among the main findings, the report highlights that Bitcoin and stablecoins dominate the purchasing behavior of Latin American markets. In fact, 38% of the cryptocurrencies acquired during the second half of 2023 correspond to bitcoin and 30% to digital dollars.
This regional trend is not reflected in our country: Argentina is the only one in the region where more than half of the purchases are in crypto dollars, surpassing bitcoin, by contributing 60% and 13%, respectively, of the total purchases. This behavior, more linked to the protection of assets than to investment, can be explained by the constant devaluation of the peso and the sustained increase in inflation, protagonists of the period analyzed.
“High inflation rates create an incentive for consumers to look for safe and fast options to protect their money from devaluation. For this reason, Argentina is the only country where Bitso operates in which the purchase of crypto dollars is almost five times that of bitcoin,” explained Julián Colombo, General Director of Bitso Argentina and added: “We noticed that in the first week of the month There is 10% more average volume operated, with the digital dollar always in first place. This behavior coincides with the collection of salaryto protect income from devaluation.”
Cryptocurrencies: composition of the average portfolio
Regarding crypto holdings, the presence of bitcoin (BTC) leads the average portfolio of Latin American users, reaching 53% of the total at the end of 2023; It is followed by ether (ETH), one of the most relevant projects in the crypto ecosystem, with 16%. Others altcoins, a variety of cryptocurrencies available on Bitso, total 11%, while Ripple’s XRP, widely used for transnational money movements, adds up to 8%. The fiat currency portion of the average portfolio totals 7%, while the remaining 5% are stablecoins.
Although in Argentina bitcoin is also the main component of the average portfolio, providing the 48% of total holdings, The second most important is crypto dollar (USD stablecoins and USDT) which represents on average 26%. Third place is occupied by ether (ETH), with 14%.
“This trend of overrepresentation of stable currencies is shared by Colombia, also with some exchange rate instability. However, Mexico and Brazil, with much more stable macroeconomic indicators, show a different panorama, where stablecoins represent a single-digit figure and the holding of local currency in the portfolio is greater. This way, Argentina is not only the country where most crypto dollars are purchased in the entire region, it is also where its holding is by far the highest“Columbo highlighted.
Cryptocurrency User Profile
The report also identifies the user profile in Latin America, detailing data such as gender, age and geographic location.
With respect to gender, there is a year-on-year growth of 3 percentage points in women who operated crypto in the second half of the year. However, their participation is still lower than that of men, reaching just 27% of the total users in the region. The report also highlights that Women tend to join the crypto world at an older age.
“Women feel more confident in acquiring cryptocurrencies with age, which could be related to the late independence and financial stability that they usually face in the region unlike men,” according to the report.
Crypto users in the region are mostly young: 63% are between 18 and 34 years old, an age range that coincides with high rates of technology adoption and Internet penetration. Meanwhile, 22% are between 35 and 44 years old; 10%, from 45 to 54 years old and just 6%, over 55 years old.
Lastly, the crypto demographic map shows that, overall, lMost users are concentrated in the main cities of the region such as Buenos Aires and its surroundings., San Pablo and Mexico City. In Argentina, in addition to the City of Buenos Aires, the largest number are found in Córdoba, Mendoza, Rosario and San Miguel de Tucumán, in that order.
In this context, this week, the Lemon exchange launched a report that allows us to measure in figures this entire process that the crypto industry is experiencing in the region. On the one hand, according to published figures, 40 million people have crypto in the region and 4 of each 10 that open a crypto app in Latin America do so with Argentine platforms.
In Argentina, there are more than 10 million cryptoactive accounts open according to the National Securities Commission (CNV). This equates the number of accounts opened in the traditional capital marketbetween common investment funds and client subaccounts.
Source: Ambito
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