Bitcoin advocate Javier Milei elected Argentina’s president

Javier Milei was elected President of Argentina with an 11.4% margin after 99.3% of the votes were counted. The former libertarian deputy said he would ‘burn’ the central bank and abandon the peso in favor of the dollar to win against inflation.

Milei’s rival—the economy minister Sergio Massa—conceded defeat. The inauguration will take place on December 10.

Milei is a supporter of Bitcoin, and for his conduct he is often compared to Donald Trump.

Argentina is enduring a persistent economic crisis, with sovereign debt defaults and facing hyperinflation and devaluation of its currency. About 40% of the population live below the poverty line, according to Bloomberg.

The future president of Argentina is known for attacking the country’s central bank. He has called it fraud and ‘the mechanism by which politicians deceive ordinary people with an inflation tax’.

In Bitcoin Milei sees a return of money to its original creator — the private sector. At the same time, the politician has not stated an intention to adopt digital gold as a payment instrument, as did the authorities of El Salvador and Central African Republic.

The announcement of the preliminary results of the Argentine presidential election triggered Bitcoin’s rise to $37,500. In the following hours, prices retraced most of the gains. Daily gains slowed to 1.5%, according to CoinGecko.

In 2022, Milei was sued for promoting an alleged cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.

In 2023, the Central Bank of Argentina proposed new guidelines that could make it harder for companies dealing with digital assets.