Argentina elects pro-Bitcoin president Javier Milei

Milei has been an outspoken critic of Argentina’s central bank and a vocal supporter of Bitcoin and crypto

article-image

Facundo Florit/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

A runoff election in Argentina, Sunday, resulted in a win for Javier Milei, a libertarian on the political right who wants to dollarize the country’s economy and has expressed support for Bitcoin.

Milei won about 56% of the vote versus just over 44% in the runoff, in Latin America’s third most populous nation.

In a country which has recently witnessed triple-digit rates of inflation, Milei sees bitcoin and digital currencies as an effort to “return money to its original creator: the private sector.”

Loading Tweet..

Emphasizing Bitcoin’s finite supply, he regards it as a more secure alternative to traditional mediums like gold or silver​​​​.

Milei, known for his anti-central banking stance, has criticized the central bank for “cheating good people” through inflationary tax. He claimed that he would “blow it up,” calling it a scam, even releasing a cinematic political ad in 2021 while running for a seat in parliament, in which he’s seen destroying a model representing the central bank with a Thor-like hammer.

Loading Tweet..
The ad, surfaced recently, was produced in 2021.

His criticism is particularly poignant given Argentina’s high inflation rates, which reached 135% in 2023​​. The peso has fallen in value, resulting in all-time highs for bitcoin (BTC), currently about ARS 13.2 million per BTC.

Milei has been involved in controversies, including being sued for allegedly promoting a Ponzi scheme called Coinx in Argentina. He denied any misconduct, comparing the company’s actions to those of a typical bank​​.

Despite his support for cryptocurrencies, Milei has not proposed making bitcoin legal tender in Argentina, as it is in El Salvador. Instead, he has called for dollarizing the Argentine economy, as a way of dealing with the country’s rampant inflation​​​​​​ problem.

While Milei’s views on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies reflect a strong preference for private sector-controlled money, and a skepticism towards central banking, it’s unclear what a Milei administration will mean in practice when it comes to integrating crypto into national economic policies.

Updated November 20, 2023 at 8:35 am ET, clarifying Milei’s anti-central bank political ad was from 2021.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) represent low-hanging fruit in a massive market ripe for Web3-driven disruption. The global CDN market was valued at ~$28B in 2024, and is projected to surpass $140B by 2034, (18.75% CAGR) underscoring the immense demand for efficient content delivery.

article-image

Sponsored

Injective is not waiting for the future of finance. It is bringing it directly to us, today.

article-image

Bitcoin has been bullish for nearly 1,000 days

article-image

Robinhood announced that it’s building an L2 and also plans to launch staking for US users

article-image

“We’re not really doing anything controversial,” said co-founder Zak Folkman at Permissionless last week

article-image

Why equities are more stable than in past decades, plus advice from Peter Lynch

article-image

As Permissionless speakers talk on-chain RWA potential, tokenized stock platform Dinari secures FINRA broker-dealer approval