Two Argentine banking-backed financial groups are developing peso stablecoins for institutional payments through separate crypto subsidiaries, positioning the products for business use while the country's banking sector remains barred from offering crypto services directly. According to a report by Iproup, these projects are being advanced outside the banking entities themselves because the Argentine Central Bank has prohibited private banks from providing crypto-related services since May 2022. The initiatives focus on programmable treasury payments, collateral management, and onchain settlement for corporate treasury operations rather than consumer payments.
BIND Group, which manages more than $2 billion in assets and owns BIND Banco Industrial, is developing a peso-backed stablecoin through its virtual asset service provider BEN. As reported by Iproup, earlier this year, BEN entered a partnership with Circle to give institutional clients access to USDC for treasury management and payment applications under Argentina's regulatory framework. The digital pesos are intended to support programmable payment conditions, collateral management, and treasury settlement using blockchain infrastructure, targeting institutional customers rather than retail users.
Petersen Group is preparing a second initiative through one of its subsidiaries with technical support from crypto infrastructure provider Lirium, according to Iproup. The stablecoin, known as DIPE, has already published a whitepaper, suggesting the project has progressed beyond the early planning stage. Unlike U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, which have become popular in Argentina as a hedge against peso depreciation, the new projects focus on digitizing the local currency for business use, with institutional customers able to automate transactions triggered by on-chain events and manage collateral-backed lending arrangements.
The stablecoin initiatives come as Argentine authorities are reportedly evaluating whether to ease the current restrictions on banking crypto services, although no formal policy change has been announced. According to Iproup, banking-backed ownership could eventually help expand adoption if regulators later allow banks to provide digital asset services directly. However, regulatory scrutiny has already emerged, with Argentina's national securities regulator questioning the argt peso stablecoin in March, stating it constituted a security being offered without complying with applicable regulations. The projects build on earlier digital peso efforts, including the CityCoin initiative approved in December 2022 by the province of San Luis for blockchain-based public services.
The Argentine projects arrive as stablecoin adoption gains traction across Latin America's banking sector. According to Bloomberg, Tether reportedly invested $20 million in Argentine digital bank Ualá as part of the lender's $197 million funding round, following Tether's recent backing of Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin and Argentine crypto platform Belo. Elsewhere, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) recently launched a pilot program using stablecoins as the settlement layer for cross-border remittances, while the global stablecoin market fell 2.39% during June to about $312 billion but recorded a record $1.79 trillion in adjusted stablecoin transaction volume according to Visa's Allium-powered dashboard.
