Argentine Pesos Smallest Unit Centavo Now Equals One Satoshi

Aisshwarya Tiwari on July 3, 2020

Following in the footsteps of the Lebanese Lira, the Centavo – the smallest denomination of Argentina’s currency – is now approximately worth one satoshi or 1/100,000,000 of a bitcoin (BTC).

One Centavo Equals One Satoshi, Almost

The economic crisis in Argentina continues to worsen as according to a post on subreddit r/bitcoin by Argentinian Redditor, OneMoreJuan, the smallest unit of the Argentine peso, a Centavo, is now approximately worth one satoshi (SAT) which is one one-hundred-millionth of a bitcoin.

Notably, Argentina has not had a particularly enviable history when it comes to paying off debts. To date, the South American country has defaulted on its debt a record nine times, indicating its long past with persistent economic instability.

The financial turmoil in Argentina is so bad that the country has an unofficial rate to the USD dubbed the “blue dollar” to make the greenback more accessible to the Argentines.

The rise of the blue dollar could be attributed to myriad monetary factors, including limits on currency conversions, strict regulations, exorbitant fees, and taxes that have made it near impossible to use the official rate of Argentine pesos to the USD. At press time, the unofficial buy rate stood at 119 ARS (Argentine pesos) per USD.

Taking the aforementioned figure into consideration, the real price of one BTC could be estimated to be somewhere around 1,050,000 ARS. Peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin marketplace LocalBitcoins confirms this price. Extrapolating the value of one Centavo from these figures makes it approximately worth one satoshi.

The value of the scrap metal used in the Centavo could actually be greater than its monetary worth, as some Redditors pointed out in the post’s discussion thread.

Fiat Currencies Crumbling Around the World

As reported by BTCManager yesterday, the Lebanese Lira – formally called the Lebanese Pound – has been on an unending freefall to hit parity with the smallest unit of BTC.

For the uninitiated, Lebanon is facing an economic crisis of its own and witnessed its national currency, the Lebanese Lira, erode by almost 50% in the last ten days.

With the Centavo now joining the dubious one satoshi club, Argentines will presumably look toward saving their wealth by placing their bets on alternative asset classes such as gold and Bitcoin.