The wARs stablecoin works on the Ethereum, World Chain and Base networks.
Instead of replacing physical money, stablecoins aim to improve financial processes.
The Ripio exchange launched the wARs stablecoin, which maintains the same price as the Argentine peso (ARS), which may generate confusion or debate about whether the physical currency of the South American country will be replaced by a crypto asset. However, this is not exactly the case.
Available on the networks EthereumWorld Chain and Base, this token is backed 1:1 by the Argentine peso. According to Ripio, the goal of wARS is to facilitate local and cross-border payments, as well as yield generation, while integrating into a growing ecosystem of tokenized assets.
As reported by CriptoNoticias, the company plans to extend this initiative to other monetary signs in the region, with the aim of “creating a new standard for payments, remittances and digital financial services.”
However, it is important to highlight that Ripio is not the only company that has launched digital assets linked to the Argentine peso. And there are other stablecoins with 1:1 parity with the ARS.
Among these alternatives is ARZissued by Transfero, which operates on multiple networks and seeks to connect local users with international markets. Another option is ARSTlaunched on the Stellar network and backed by pesos deposited in banks in Argentina, whose main objective is to facilitate remittances and fast payments without intermediaries, both locally and internationally.
Stablecoins gain ground in the financial system
The appearance of several stablecoins shows that they do not seek to replace the national currency or challenge its legal statusbut to offer the population more alternatives. This may include the possibility of activating returns on funds deposited on platforms, to protect against inflation, a problem that the country has faced for decades.
Thus, rather than replacing physical money, these assets aim to gain ground in online operations, international transfers and payments between financial platforms.
In a jurisdiction with a high adoption of cryptocurrencies such as Argentina, the Ripio stablecoin could become an agile alternative for users, although without displacing the peso, which remains, by law, the only official currency in the nation.
The arrival of wARs It occurs in a context of global stablecoin boomled by those linked to the US dollar such as tether (USDT) and usd coin (USDC).
In 2024 alone, the market for these cryptocurrencies moved more than $27 trillion, according to the World Economic Forum, exceeding the combined annual volume of Visa and Mastercard. In Latin America, Argentina and Brazil lead the use of stablecoins, with shares of 61.8% and 59.8%, respectively.