Banco Galicia opens cryptocurrency investments in Argentina

[TheGhostMan]

From today, May 2, the home banking of Banco Galicia, the largest private bank in Argentina, offers the option of buying bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies to the company's customers.

In addition to bitcoin, the other cryptocurrencies that can be purchased are ether (ETH), USD Coin (USDC) and Ripple's XRP. All these digital currencies can be accessed through Argentine pesos.

This movement is not to my liking, it is no secret to anyone that banks have recently tried to relate to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, but in my case I do not agree with this, since some banks belong to political entities and take into account that these manage my data does not attract my attention.

In the news it tells us

"Your assets will be guarded abroad and are not covered by the regulations of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic or the National Securities Commission of the Argentine Republic," reads the document, which also clarifies that " Galicia will not have any control or influence” over the cryptocurrency wallet.

There it is also

detailed that the cryptocurrencies are in a wallet "in the custody of the providers and, therefore, it is not regulated by the laws of the Argentine Republic."

We cannot certify this because it is more than clear that the way these influence is by making us believe what we want. I really have many doubts, what would happen if my person or an investor made a movement of large amounts of cryptocurrencies? Would it attract the attention of these entities? And well, precisely one of the main benefits of cryptocurrencies is that it is decentralized, causing a world of benefit, I have always said it and I will always say it, if the banks implemented this they would have "certain control over our movements, if not total control"

Information extracted from: https://www.criptonoticias.com/negocios/banco-galicia-argentina-vende-bitcoin-criptomonedas-sitio-web/

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[serjent05]

It looks highly possible that the Argentinian Government will be the next one to legalize Bitcoin as legal tender.  This news aligns with the previous action of the government to implement a centralized system that serves as a registry for cryptocurrency holders.[1]

With the bank being involved in buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the Argentinian government will have an easy task tracking cryptocurrency transactions and filling their registry with the name of people who have cryptocurrency holdings.

In addition to bitcoin, the other cryptocurrencies that can be purchased are ether (ETH), USD Coin (USDC) and Ripple's XRP. All these digital currencies can be accessed through Argentine pesos.

Having access to cryptocurrency with a national currency makes it more attractive to partake in the cryptocurrency industry.  We may possibly see a spike in cryptocurrency users in this country.  Another forward step to cryptocurrency adoption but at the same time a backward step to decentralization.


[1] https://news.bitcoin.com/argentinian-tax-agency-supports-creation-of-global-crypto-report-system-to-avoid-evasion/

[nullama]

The thing with these banks allowing bitcoin investments is that in reality people are not buying Bitcoin.

They can't withdraw their bitcoin from the bank, they can only buy or sell it in that platform. That basically means they just have an IOU, and not real Bitcoin.

I would avoid using any system like that as it's not the real thing. Much better to just buy bitcoin from an exchange instead.

[aoluain]

There are high chances that people who would be interested in using these centralised
services will either be existing customers and/or not care about their privacy or at least care
about keeping their purchases private from others but not the authorities.

There does seem to be some sort of interest brewing from South American countries towards Bitcoin,
obviously El Salvador has kicked things off and we are hearing interest from Panama, Brazil and Argentina.

[SFR10]

From today, May 2, the home banking of Banco Galicia, the largest private bank in Argentina, offers the option of buying bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies to the company's customers.

It seems that they're not the only bank in Argentina ^{[Brubank SAU]} that's offering such services to their customers.

This movement is not to my liking,

Same here, but surprisingly, that's not the case with most of their customers:

• For Banco Galicia, the decision follows high customer demand, with 60% of respondents in a survey asking for easy access to crypto through their banks.

" Galicia will not have any control or influence” over the cryptocurrency wallet.

That's not how I interpreted the following part but regardless of that, I'm a bit surprised that they went with a provider who "isn't fully covered by insurance"!

• As a backend solution, you always keep full ownership and control of your customer's experience.

[kryptqnick]

Given that inflation seems very bad in Argentina (40-50% yearly lately), it's great that Bitcoin will be available for purchase and that it's a bank that's allowing that. I think it's in countries like that where fiat is clearly not doing well that Bitcoin can look especially attractive. Bitcoin can go 50% down, sure, but it's not very likely to happen, certainly not every year. And if your local fiat is very likely to go 50% down in a year, then Bitcoin isn't that volatile. Also, Bitcoin actually tends to grow over the years, so the risk might be worth it, as there's no way that local fiat will stop losing value, the question is only about how much value it'll lose. I don't think it's a bad thing that a bank is offering crypto purchases, but of course it's up to people to decide if this is how they want to buy and store their coins.

[avikz]

This initiative has both good and bad sides to it. It will certainly help in further adoption of cryptocurrencies as a banking institution is offering this service. So a lot of people might become interested in owning some bitcoins through banking channels.

But the anonymity will be gone! Every bank has to follow the KYC procedures and whoever buys bitcoins from banking institutions, they can't remain anonymous. But if you are not finicky about privacy, that's a net positive!

[DdmrDdmr]

Some very recent article I’ve just read on the matter, states that the Central Bank of Argentina (BRCA) is forcing Banco Galicia to hold back on offering BTC (et al) to its customers. Further details are expected to be released shortly, but a legal grey area seems to have been used to make the crypto offering to the bank’s customers, and the BCRA is acting to stop this from happening.

We'll need to stay tuned to events, and see if the above gets confirmed by official sources.

See:
https://www-iprofesional-com.translate.goog/finanzas/361935-bcra-vetara-la-oferta-banco-galicia-de-operar-con-bitcoin/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=es&_x_tr_pto=wapp