'Bitcoin Day' Proves Argentina's Crypto Love Is Alive and Well

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Bitcoin may not yet have "Conquered" Argentina, but it's certainly making in-roads.

Chile's Guillermo Torrealba, CEO of the cryptocurrency services firm Buda, contrasted his efforts to achieve banking support in Argentina with experiences elsewhere.

"There are even banks here that have executives that are exclusively dedicated to cryptocurrency companies," Torrealba said.

"In Chile last week, all commercial banks have decided to close the accounts to all the cryptocurrency companies at the same time. They killed the industry," he told CoinDesk.

Still, that's not to say there isn't optimism that other countries will follow in Argentina's progressive footsteps.

For this, a talk by Carlos Maslaton, h.ead of treasury at Xapo, satisfied, with dialogue on how financial entities are wary of bitcoin because it "Generates competition" in the financial markets.

He notably went on to urge banks to "Open their minds a little," suggesting that the crowd in attendance was reason enough that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are, if nothing else, a new market for their services.

Still, if Maslaton doesn't see banks as the enemy, he believes bitcoin still has regional threats.

Asked by a Venezuelan about his opinion on the petro cryptocurrency, he went so far as to call it a "Fraud."

CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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