Argentina’s next president will be ‘Bitcoin-friendly’

A run-off election for the next president of Argentina will take place on November 19, after the non-decisive first round on October 22. Notably, both remaining presidential candidates have friendly plans for Bitcoin (BTC) in the country.

This year’s election is now disputed by Sergio Massa of the ruling Union for the Homeland against Javier Milei of the Liberty Advances.

Interestingly, the recent severe Argentinian inflation took place during Massa’s tenure as the Minister of Economy. The candidate continues to rule the Ministry of Economy in Argentina as of the day of publication.

On the other hand, both the incumbent president Alberto Fernández and incumbent vice president and former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, did not seek re-election.

Bitcoin wins in Argentina’s presidential election

The first round of Argentina’s presidential election resulted in Sergio Massa winning 36% of the votes, while Javier Milei got the second place with 30% of the votes. This shows meaningful leadership from the current Minister of the Economy, despite not finding the absolute majority.

Nevertheless, both candidates have shown Bitcoin-friendly plans for the country. In this context, Bitcoin has already won in Argentina.

On one corner, Sergio Massa has plans to mine Bitcoin with the excess of natural gas from the country’s Vaca Muerta shale formation to power BTC mining operations. Meanwhile, Javier Milei believes Bitcoin is the natural reaction against the central banks, favoring BTC against centralized banking.

It is notable that Argentinians have been increasingly adopting cryptocurrencies in the past years in order to fight inflation and financial tyranny in the country. Particularly, this growing adoption could earn strength after 2023’s presidential election, despite the results.

However, it is also important to understand that neither candidate has shown plans to make Bitcoin legal tender in Argentina, as happened in El Salvador in 2021.