Within the framework of the most recent edition of LABITCONF, held in the city of Buenos Aires, CriptoNoticias spoke with Julián Colombo, general director of Bitso in Argentina. The executive analyzed the regulatory landscape in the southern country, the company’s plans in the region and the evolution of the cryptocurrency market, highlighting that the sector is going through a period of greater institutional stability.
“There is no longer fear that the BCRA will ban cryptocurrencies,” said the specialist during the talk, pointing out a change in climate in the relationship between the industry and the Argentine authorities.
Along these lines, Colombo announced that Bitso plans to expand its services in the country currently governed by Javier Mileiin order to respond to the demands of local users, who seek greater ease of use and better performance. “People want an experience that is easy to use, that can be accessible and that there are good prices,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of launching a stable currency linked to the Argentine peso, as the Ripio exchange recently did – as reported by CriptoNoticias – the executive recalled that Bitso already has experience in this area.
“We launched our stablecoin anchored to the Mexican peso called MXNB a long time ago,” he said. “We are also founding members of a consortium that launched a stablecoin pegged to the Brazilian real, BRL1.”
Regulation: advances and outstanding debts
The manager also highlighted that The expansion of products and services in Argentina must be accompanied by a clear regulatory environment and predictable. In that sense, he valued the progress promoted by the National Securities Commission (CNV) in the tokenization of real assets, in addition to the joint work between the public and private sectors.
“There are companies that are already tokenizing soybeans, apartments, hotels, plane tickets, anything, and it seems very positive to me that in Argentina we can do it safely,” Colombo stressed.
He also added: «Since our founding in 2014 we have advocated being regulated. In Argentina we replicate that model and we are happy that the CNV has maintained this effort throughout the change of government.
This effort that the CNV technicians began to make was in 2022-2023, under the other management, as they set up a public-private table where we from Bitso participated. We believe that that brought many good things to the system and I think that the main thing is to protect users, to give them some mechanism so that if a person has a bad experience, they are scammed, they lose their funds, they now have a regulator to whom they can turn, that is something that is good.
Julián Colombo, general director of Bitso Argentina.
However, he warned that regulation must remain flexible: «This market is very fast, it changes all the time, and regulators have to keep up. “If it becomes bureaucratic, it can get complicated.”
Opinion on the current government of Argentina
Regarding the government of Javier Milei, Julián considered that the initial messages of deregulation generated optimism in the industry, although obstacles still persist.
“We came from a very strained relationship with the Central Bank of the other administration,” he recalled, and celebrated that progress has now been made in terms of deregulation.
With this statement, Colombo was referring to the restrictions imposed by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) in 2022, when it issued Communication “A” 7506, which prohibited banks from offering services related to bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto assets to their clients.
In anticipation of a lifting of this ban, the specialist stated: “We know that it is on the Central Bank’s roadmap along with other measures of the stocks that still remain to be dismantled.”
Another point of great importance in Argentina is the tax aspect, which Julián also emphasized: «Today we are worse than four years ago with the tax issue. We have a tax on checks or debits and credits that banks or fintechs do not have, but the crypto world does. He explained that many companies are forced to raise prices or reduce services for this reason.
Regional differences and perspective on bitcoin
The executive compared the evolution of the Argentine market with that of other countries in which Bitso operates. «Crypto is growing throughout the region, there is no country that is decreasing. But each country has a different characteristic,” he said, adding that, while in Mexico and Colombia remittances are the main driving force, In Argentina the priority continues to be protecting purchasing power through the purchase of stablecoins.
Despite the reduction of the exchange rate and the stabilization of the exchange rate, Colombo assured that adoption remains solid. «Users continue to join. They continue to buy crypto dollars, they trust bitcoin, they use crypto to pay and send money, and companies are also joining in,” he added.
Finally, Colombo reflected on the volatility of the market and the price of bitcoin, remembering the changes experienced in recent years. «Three years ago we were all crying about the scenario that came after the bankruptcy of FTX. Then, last year BTC touched $100,000 for the first time, and this year it touched $126,000,” he reviewed.
Although he acknowledged that users continue to pay attention to the price, Colombo opted for a long-term perspective: “Those of us who have been accompanying bitcoin for a long time know that we have to look at it by zooming out, that is, see the long-term panorama.”