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LATAM · Emerging
Argentina
Crypto Livability Index 2025·data to 31 Dec 2025
Scoreboard
Five pillars, then the 22 sub-pillars scored 0 to 4. Empty sub-scores are held out of the total, not zeroed.
The number behind the rank
| Raw capability score | 69 / 84 |
| P2P liquidity bonus (tie-breaker) | +3 |
| Inflation 131.8% · unbanked 18% · remittances 0.2% GDP · capital controls 0.84 · sanctions 0 | CNI 0.405 |
| Need multiplier | ×1.108 |
| Livability score | 0.910 |
Raw 69/84 = 0.821 capability. Crypto-Necessity Index 0.41, from five components: inflation 131.8% (three-year average 2023 to 2025, at the 50% clamp), unbanked 18% of adults, remittances 0.2% of GDP, capital-control intensity 0.84 (KAOPEN 2023), sanctions exposure 0. Need multiplier ×1.11. Livability score 0.910, first of 79 by a margin no other country approaches.
Three findings
The strongest rulebook in the index, written by decree
Argentina's 17/20 regulation score is the joint best of all 79 countries, shared only with El Salvador and above Switzerland's 16. Decree DNU 70/2023 amended Article 766 of the Civil Code so contracts, including salaries, can be settled in Bitcoin: one of only three top scores for crypto income legality, alongside El Salvador and the UAE. Disposal gains are taxed at a flat 5 to 15%.
Three crypto ATMs in the whole country, and it does not matter
ATM density is Argentina's lowest sub-score: 3 machines serve the 20.1 million residents of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario, against 29,948 in the United States. The rails run elsewhere: cuevas (informal cash exchange houses) and CVU transfers (the central bank's interoperable virtual account system for fintechs) bridge USDT to pesos at street level, and all six utility-bill categories settle crypto-native through Lemon and Belo.
The crypto event capital of 2025
Roughly 150 events in the year put Argentina in the top band for community activity per user, crowned by Devconnect Buenos Aires, the largest Ethereum Foundation gathering in history at roughly 15,000 attendees. Retail crypto volume reached an estimated $91.1 billion in 2024, the highest in Latin America.
In one line
"Argentina does not top this index because crypto is easy there. It tops it because the peso made crypto necessary, and the country built rails good enough to act on it."
Watch in 2026
Trajectory 4/4, actively liberalising. The CNV's VASP registration regime took full effect on 31 December 2025; banks have been authorised to offer crypto services, with launches expected from April 2026; most currency controls were lifted in 2025. The need side of the rank rests on a 2023 capital-controls vintage: the published sensitivity analysis re-scores the 2025 liberalisation and Argentina remains first in both variants (Appendix A.8).