Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is seeing an increase in customers due to rising inflation and a historically strong dollar that has depressed emerging market currencies, an executive told Reuters on Wednesday, without releasing figures.
“As we see inflation ramping up globally, we see more and more people looking to cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, as a way to protect themselves from inflation,” said Maximiliano Hinz, head of Binance in Latin America, during an interview. in Lima.
Hinz pointed to the example of Argentina, where annual inflation is 90%. The country, along with Brazil and Mexico, has become one of the company’s top markets.
Argentina saw citizens pour savings into bitcoin this year despite a crash in cryptocurrency prices.
While El Salvador has made headlines for adopting bitcoin as legal tender, Hinz said other Latin American countries have not yet enacted meaningful cryptocurrency legislation, though he doesn’t necessarily see that as a bad thing for the company.
“Regulation is a framework, but it’s not always a negative that something isn’t regulated,” he said. “If something isn’t banned, it’s legal.”
Under President Nayib Bukele, El Salvador has wagered massively on bitcoin, making it legal tender and purchasing more than $100 million worth of cryptocurrency, which has lost about 50% of their value this year amid a wider cryptocurrency sell-off.