- The IMF had sought assurances from Argentina that it will not adopt cryptocurrencies
- Argentina is seeking a $45 billion loan from the IMF and the deal includes an anti-crypto provision
- The IMF has been warning over legalizing crypto since 2018
The Argentine Senate last night approved a debt deal of $45 billion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which contains a provision that the country “discourage the use of crypto-currencies”. The IMF, which heavily criticized El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin last year, is keen to prevent other countries following suit, and ensured that Argentina would not be next in line by including the provision in its debt deal. The deal will serve to restructure a $57 billion program the country received in 2018 and must now be approved by the IMF board.
IMF Has History Over Crypto Warnings
The IMF has warned about the dangers of countries adopting cryptocurrencies since 2018 when it asked the Marshall Islands to reconsider its decision to make its own cryptocurrency legal tender.
El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin last year tipped the IMF over the edge however, with Tobias Adrian, the IMF’s financial counselor and head of its monetary and capital markets department, warning that the use of cryptocurrencies in place of traditional currencies posed “immediate and acute risks” to emerging markets.
Argentina Promises to Stay Away From Crypto
If the language in Argentina’s loan deal is anything to go by the IMF has seemingly taken its battle against cryptocurrency adoption up a notch, with a clause in the document saying that the country promised that it was “taking important steps to…discourage the use of crypto-currencies with a view to preventing money laundering, informality and disintermediation…”.
It is highly unlikely that Argentinian politicians put this clause in themselves, meaning that the IMF is finding ways to get assurances that other countries will not tread the same path as El Salvador. We can expect to see such clauses making their way into all subsequent IMF loans in the future.
