Q&A: Lemon CFO sees spike in Argentina bitcoin demand as locals flee inflation

Raimondi: Yes. Having this inflation rate, people work 30 days and they are collecting their salary on the last day of the month or the first day of the month. During the last period, we had inflation of about 30% per month. So at the very beginning [of the month], a lot of Argentinians are moving to stablecoins in order to take cover from that inflation and devaluation and to secure their own savings.

But we saw in the last month that a lot of people are also moving into bitcoin. The reason may be because of the bull market, maybe because of a lot of news about the halving, maybe because of what’s going on in the US with the ETF. We had an all-time high during February of about 40,000 weekly transactions of people willing to acquire bitcoins.

[Editor’s note: Lemon later shared internal data confirming this figure, and showed that stablecoins now account for just 67% of Lemon’s volume, down from 86% in October.]

Blockworks: Has it been a challenge being a fiat off-ramp in Argentina, where the currency is devaluing so quickly that if I pay you in pesos for some amount of crypto, the pesos could be worth some percentage less a month later?

Raimondi: It is quite a challenge to be a fintech right now in Argentina, but for us and the people in Argentina, it’s really what we’re used to.

You know, I remember in the past when hyperinflation took place in Argentina. I remember my parents collecting their salary and going out to the supermarket the same day. And I remember seeing queues and queues of people buying at the supermarket just to cover from the devaluation. And right now I do not see those kinds of things happen, because the people have access to other kinds of coverage such as what we provide.