Late Sunday night, it was confirmed that Bitcoin friendly candidate Javier Milei officially won Argentina’s presidential election, beating his opponent Sergio Massa by 2,786,457 votes. The new president will now take office on December 10.
While Milei has not yet advocated for Bitcoin to be used as legal tender or to hold BTC as a reserve asset, he does has plans to scrape the Argentine peso and replace it with the US dollar. Last Monday, the Argentine peso saw its hyperinflation rise to 143% and growing, leaving the nation financially ruined and in desperate need of change.
Earlier this year, hundreds of Argentines gathered in support of Bitcoin, forming the shape of a giant BTC symbol to protest the rampant inflation plaguing the country.
📸 Hundreds of people in Argentina forming the shape of a #Bitcoin in protest during soaring inflation 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/BbNciUjfpW
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) June 11, 2023
The new president of Argentina has been very vocal about his criticisms of central banking, previously stating “The central bank is a scam, a mechanism by which politicians cheat the good people with inflationary tax.” After that he commented on Bitcoin, saying that it “represents the return of money to its original creator, the private sector,” and that “it prevents politicians from robbing you through inflation.”
“With legal tender, they scam you with the inflationary tax… #Bitcoin is the natural reaction against central bank scammers; to make money private again.” – Javier Milei, President of Argentina 🇦🇷🇦🇷pic.twitter.com/Rs2yXFo4e7
— Dylan LeClair 🟠 (@DylanLeClair_) November 19, 2023
He has also featured on a TV show in the past, mercilessly beating a piñata of a central bank with a stick.
🇦🇷 Pro-#Bitcoin Argentine Presidential candidate on national TV destroying a central bank piñata.
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) May 3, 2023
While the future of Bitcoin remains uncertain in Argentina at the moment, Javier Milei being sworn into office is hopefully one step closer to the country joining El Salvador in officially adopting Bitcoin as legal tender and holding it as a reserve asset.
