IMF uses Argentine debt to make it discourage crypto

Does IMF know that Bitcoin is not good for the illicit activity?

?‍? This old FUD has been dismantled so many times, that even the US Treasury (crypto’s die-hard opponent) in its recent reports notes that crypto use for money laundering “remains far below that of fiat currency and more traditional methods” (“The 2022 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment”).

More precisely, illicit activity is estimated to represent 0.15% of all yearly crypto transaction volume, most of them related to the crypto scams and DeFi protocols’ hacks (Chainalysis).

? And yet, the IMF doesn’t let itself be stopped by the arguments of reason. It uses the “illicit activity” FUD together with its position of money lender to try and stop crypto from gaining ground.

It failed spectacularly with El Salvador, where President Bukele does not intend to rescind its Bitcoin law.

It succeeded, however, in Argentina.

In order to restructure Argentina’s $45Bn debt, the IMF imposed a condition, obliging the government to “discourage the use of cryptocurrencies in prevention of money laundering and informality”.

Yesterday the Argentine Senate approved the deal.

? Argentina is a country struggling with >50% inflation and strict currency controls, limiting citizens in their ability to exchange pesos into foreign currency.

Quite naturally, this led to many people turning to crypto: Argentina is considered to be in the top10 countries by crypto adoption. Could the new deal with IMF stop this?

We hope it won’t, for the sake of the Argentine people.