Argentina Ethereum Ecosystem Overview

April 23, 2025

This month, let's explore Argentina's thriving Ethereum ecosystem.

Ethereum Image

Special thanks to Eugenia, Romina, Candu for feedback and review.

Tl;dr

Since 2018, the Argentine Ethereum community has continued to grow through grassroots events, strong developer talent, and an established startup landscape.
By 2025, crypto is widely used as a tool for savings and payments.
Regulatory progress is accelerating, with new laws defining virtual assets and overseeing service providers.
Let's bring Argentines onchain!

🗣️ Do you know how to say Ethereum in Spanish?

Just say it at sayethereum.fun(opens in a new tab)

Ethereum in Argentina: The Early Days

Early crypto history in Argentina can be traced back to 2011–2012 when some Bitcoiners started Bitcoin Argentina on Facebook, which later led to the founding of the Bitcoin Argentina NGO(opens in a new tab) in 2013.
Casa Voltaire(opens in a new tab) followed in 2014-2015. Functioning as both a hacker house and hangout spot, Casa Voltaire served as an innovation hub that spawned companies including Decentraland, Muun, and OpenZeppelin.
The first ETHGlobal hackathon in LATAM was the ETHBuenosAires(opens in a new tab) back in May 2018, thanks to the organizers Martín(opens in a new tab) and Ornella(opens in a new tab).
For years after ETHBuenosAires, the community came together(opens in a new tab) to talk and learn at EthereumBA meetups(opens in a new tab), thanks to Martín(opens in a new tab), Sebastián(opens in a new tab), Emilio and Mateo.
Communities like DeFi Para Principiantes(opens in a new tab) provided educational onboarding while wallets like Argent were subsidizing gas fees at the time, allowing Argentines who initially adopted DAI as a hedge against inflation to later explore broader DeFi opportunities during strict currency controls.
ETHLatam @ Buenos Aires 2022 Recap(opens in a new tab): ETHLatam origins. How it started, how it's going. From a ~300 people hackathon to a 4,000+ people conference.

Inflation, Public Trust

In 2001, a measure(opens in a new tab) known as "El Corralito" limited Argentines' access to their bank deposits, restricting their withdrawals. This event eroded public trust in the government, banks and the economy.
High inflation has made Argentines acutely aware of multiple exchange rates(opens in a new tab) and the need to save in alternative currencies.
Since the 2010s, Argentina's strict currency controls, transaction restrictions, and foreign exchange limitations have driven widespread adoption of alternative financial solutions, with citizens increasingly relying on foreign bank accounts, physical US dollars, and more recently, stablecoins for payments, remittances, and wealth preservation.
In February 2024, President Milei promoted the launch of the '$LIBRA' cryptocurrency, which crashed by more than 90% after an initial spike. This collapse wiped out over $280 million in value and damaged Milei's image. Lawmakers continue to investigate(opens in a new tab) the government's involvement.

Policy

Traditional banks cannot provide crypto services in Argentina(opens in a new tab). However, CEXs can provide crypto services given they are listed as Virtual Asset Service Providers. Crypto payments are not prohibited, but remain a "grey area."
Earnings obtained from buying and selling virtual assets are understood as capital gains, should be declared and are subject to statements of personal assets, taxes on personal assets(opens in a new tab) and income taxes, both individually and as a company.
Crypto regulation is progressing under the new administration.
- Law 27.743(opens in a new tab) marked the first explicit regulatory inclusion of crypto.
- Law 27.739(opens in a new tab) defined virtual assets and created a Virtual Asset Service Providers registry(opens in a new tab).
Recently, Argentina's crypto community has engaged with initiatives by the Argentine Fintech Chamber to create a regulatory sandbox(opens in a new tab) to explore tokenization of RWA.

Local Grassroots Communities

Argentina's vibrant crypto ecosystem thrives through diverse grassroots communities focused on education, events, advocacy and more, with orgs like Ethereum Argentina, Crecimiento, SEED Org, and ETHKipu collaboratively building toward making the country LATAM's Ethereum hub.

Ethereum Argentina(opens in a new tab): An initiative to grow the local Ethereum ecosystem through annual conferences and hackathons since 2023. Past editions in Buenos Aires drew 4,000 (2023) and 3,000 (2024) attendees, with recent expansions to Mendoza(opens in a new tab) and Córdoba. The core team includes ETHLatam contributors and other longstanding members of the Ethereum community.
Crecimiento(opens in a new tab): A movement born in 2024 to transform Argentina into Latam's crypto capital. It hosts Aleph pop-up cities in Buenos Aires(opens in a new tab) with 3,000+ attendees, a Founders School, Rayuela startups program, promoting regulatory reform and community-led initiatives. Crecimiento emerged from contributors at The Mu, Solow, POAP, Beefy, ETHLatam 2022. The core team includes Milagros Santamaria(opens in a new tab), Santiago Cristobal(opens in a new tab), Simon Puebla(opens in a new tab), Pablo Lewin(opens in a new tab), Mecha Racconto(opens in a new tab), Francisco Mendez(opens in a new tab).
SEED Org(opens in a new tab): A collective driving decentralized solutions across: governance (via SEED Gov(opens in a new tab) dedicated delegate platform), community and education (SEED Latam(opens in a new tab)), and infrastructure support (SEED Nodes(opens in a new tab)).
ETHKipu(opens in a new tab): A collective that promotes Ethereum-focused educational initiatives across LATAM. ETHKipu supports local communities through multiple programs: Kipu Impact for community building, Kipu Stakers for staking education, and the Ethereum Developer Pack for technical training. The organization also coordinates events through ETHLatam(opens in a new tab) and has successfully integrated(opens in a new tab) Ethereum and Solidity into high school education programs in Buenos Aires, thanks to the Argentine team members Lola(opens in a new tab), Pau(opens in a new tab), Romi(opens in a new tab) and Charly(opens in a new tab).
APRENDO by Proof of Integrity(opens in a new tab): An organization brings blockchain education to underserved communities.
Geers(opens in a new tab): An educational initiative training technology professionals in Tandil, Argentina, supported by the Technological Cluster of Tandil(opens in a new tab), the local Municipality and UNICEN(opens in a new tab). One of their educational pillars is blockchain(opens in a new tab), featuring workshops on fundamentals and Solidity.
zkCity(opens in a new tab): A cryptography and zero-knowledge bootcamp that ran twice in 2024.
Mujeres En Crypto(opens in a new tab): A professional network dedicated to advancing female representation and leadership in Web3 through targeted development opportunities and strategic networking. Led by industry professionals Mery Fiorentini(opens in a new tab) and Constanza Bianchi(opens in a new tab).
Other general Web3 communities: Cultura C3(opens in a new tab), Cripto La Plata(opens in a new tab).

Ethereum and Related Startups

DeFi

Mimic(opens in a new tab): A decentralized automation protocol combining AI and intent infrastructure to manage swapping, bridging, and liquidity.
Kpk (f.k.a. Karpatkey)(opens in a new tab): A DeFi, asset and treasury management service provider.
Balmy(opens in a new tab): A decentralized banking platform and DEX aggregator.
Exactly Protocol(opens in a new tab): A decentralized lending protocol, with a mobile credit and debit card and payments app(opens in a new tab) to use onchain assets.
Mountain Protocol(opens in a new tab): A yield-bearing stablecoin protocol.
Pol Finance(opens in a new tab): A company providing DeFi solutions including token engineering and financial auditing.
DAMM Capital(opens in a new tab): A company providing DeFi as a service solutions.

Wallets & Payments

Lemon Cash(opens in a new tab): A custodial wallet and exchange allowing users to buy, sell, and pay bills with crypto or fiat.
Belo(opens in a new tab): A custodial wallet and exchange, allowing users to buy, sell, and pay bills with crypto or fiat.
Ripio(opens in a new tab): A custodial wallet(opens in a new tab), infrastructure provider(opens in a new tab) and exchange(opens in a new tab), allowing users to buy, and sell crypto and fiat. Ripio launched LaChain(opens in a new tab), an L2 as part of ZKsync's Elastic Chain.
Buenbit(opens in a new tab): A custodial wallet and exchange, allowing users to buy, sell, and invest crypto and fiat.
SimpleFi(opens in a new tab): A payments platform facilitating integration of crypto payments with a business's existing systems.
Satoshi Tango(opens in a new tab): A CEX, allowing users to buy and sell crypto and fiat.
Berry(opens in a new tab): An investing platform offering access to US stocks and ETFs.
Other non-Argentine wallets with significant presence are Bitso(opens in a new tab) (custodial), MetaMask(opens in a new tab), Safe Wallet(opens in a new tab) and Rabby(opens in a new tab).

Security

OpenZeppelin(opens in a new tab): A security company that offers security audits, smart contract libraries and developer tooling.
CoinFabrik(opens in a new tab): A security and development firm providing smart contract auditing and blockchain architecture design.
The Red Guild(opens in a new tab): A guild of researchers providing education on crypto security.
Opsek(opens in a new tab): A Web3 audit company that provides security audits and training services.

Infrastructure and R&D

Nomic Foundation(opens in a new tab): A non-profit providing open-source engineering software for Ethereum. Projects include Hardhat and Hardhat related developer tooling, Slang compilers and EDR.
Lambda Class(opens in a new tab): A software factory, venture studio and an investment firm. Projects include ETHRex(opens in a new tab), an Ethereum client written in Rust; Aligned Layer(opens in a new tab), a decentralized network of verifiers.
Wonderland(opens in a new tab): A core development group and a Core Dev of The Graph, Everclear and Optimism. Projects include the SuperchainERC20 standard and opUSDC architecture for Optimism, public goods such as the Wonderland Governor Contract, among others.
BootNode(opens in a new tab): A software development studio offering smart contract and product development across DeFi, RWA, Web3 social and more.
Eryx(opens in a new tab): A dev shop that provides software solutions, including implementing cryptography protocols with ZK proofs and FHE.
Protofire(opens in a new tab): A development studio offering smart contract, app and software development services.
Wake Up Labs(opens in a new tab): A development studio providing software services and developing applications and infrastructure.
Sensei Node(opens in a new tab): A company that provides staking and node infrastructure services.
Cobuilders(opens in a new tab): A software firm providing software design and development services.
Fatsolutions(opens in a new tab): A development shop working on ZK solutions.

Social and Gaming

Decentraland(opens in a new tab): A virtual world platform to own and create digital assets and experiences.
POAP(opens in a new tab): A proof of attendance protocol to tokenize memories and turn them into onchain collectibles.
Bombo(opens in a new tab): A platform providing NFT ticketing solutions.

Decentralized Identity

Quark ID(opens in a new tab): A permissionless self-sovereign identity protocol built using ZKsync to store and deploy credentials offchain.
Sovra(opens in a new tab): A decentralized identity and RWA-focused ZK Validium L2.

Dispute Resolution

Kleros(opens in a new tab): A decentralized court system, using game theory and juror selection to resolve disputes onchain.

Other

XCapit(opens in a new tab): A company providing app development and tokenization solutions, with projects including renewable energy tokenization, and carbon credit tokenization.
OpenVino(opens in a new tab): A web3 platform that provides tokenization services for wineries.

Many Argentines are contributing to protocols such as Aztec, Sky (f.k.a. Maker), the Optimism Collective, SEAL, ZKsync, Certora, The Sandbox, Lido, The Graph, Graph Ops, Edge & Node and more. Argentina has an emerging startup landscape fueled by Crecimiento initiatives.

Ethereum Ecosystem Users & Use Cases

Users Image 1 Users Image 2

Stablecoin surge: In Argentina, stablecoins accounted for 61.8% of all crypto activities. Due to high inflation (reaching 211%(opens in a new tab) in 2023 and 118%(opens in a new tab) in 2024) and Peso devaluation, stablecoins provide an alternative way for people to protect their savings. Stablecoin-based remittances are gaining traction in Argentina and LATAM as a whole.
On and offramps: Locals prefer CEXs like Lemon – 46.9% of daily active users in exchanges choosing Argentine platforms in 2024(opens in a new tab). Argentines rely on CEXs and informal exchanges with parallel non-official exchange rates for onramp and offramp solutions.
DID: QuarkID is the digital trust framework developed by the Government of the City of Buenos Aires that establishes a new digital identity system, providing enhanced privacy for 3.6 million citizens.

Web2 and Web3 Developers

Web2 Developers

Argentina is the second-largest source of developers in LATAM with over 1,130,000 developers(opens in a new tab), including more than 156,000 registered software developers(opens in a new tab) – a 4.1% increase since 2023.
Software sector employment grew 55.5%(opens in a new tab) from 2015 to 2023, outpacing private sector growth (2.7%). Argentina also produces strong local talent, with over 27,000 STEM graduates(opens in a new tab) annually in provinces like Córdoba.
Argentina is home to 228 software development firms and 11 out of 34 unicorn startups in LATAM(opens in a new tab) are from Argentina. Buenos Aires serves as a hub for the startup and tech industry, supported by regional innovation clusters, or polos tecnológicos, across the country.

Web3 Developers

LATAM hosts 2.9% of crypto companies(opens in a new tab) and South America's share of global crypto developers grew from 2.1% in 2015 to 5.1% in 2024(opens in a new tab). Argentina's global developer share is 1.7%(opens in a new tab).
South America is the region where Ethereum holds the highest proportion of active developers compared to other ecosystems(opens in a new tab).
Notable Ethereum contributors from Argentina include Mariano Conti(opens in a new tab), former Head of Smart Contracts at Maker, Manuel Araoz(opens in a new tab), co-founder of OpenZeppelin and Decentraland, and other Web3 developers like Sergio Damian Lerner(opens in a new tab) from Rootstock.
Regulatory and economic uncertainty remain key challenges for founders building in Web3 and Web2.

University & Blockchain Clubs

Argentina has strong engineering, physics, computer science and cryptography programs in public and private universities.
Blockchain education is progressing. Notable institutions like Universidad de Buenos Aires(opens in a new tab), Universidad Nacional de La Plata(opens in a new tab), Universidad Técnica Nacional(opens in a new tab) and Universidad Torcuato Di Tella(opens in a new tab) are offering courses, diplomas and executive programs in smart contracts, blockchain fundamentals, identity and fintech law.
Universities are collaborating with the crypto community: Universidad de Buenos Aires' diploma program(opens in a new tab) is run in collaboration with Bitcoin Argentina NGO, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella's Executive Program on Blockchain and Digital Identity(opens in a new tab) is taught by Quark ID's Diego Fernandez, and Universidad de Champagnat has offered Introduction to Solidity(opens in a new tab) in partnership with ETHKipu.
Blockchain clubs are active at Club Cripto UCEMA(opens in a new tab), Di Tella Blockchain Club(opens in a new tab), and Trama (ITBA).

Navigate a full list of Ethereum and blockchain-related courses here: Universities on Blockchain(opens in a new tab) 🇦🇷 by SeedOrg, with support from Eugenia.

Media - Who Are Local Players

Local crypto media coverage in Argentina is limited, with most of the ecosystem relying on international sources like Coindesk(opens in a new tab), Bloomberg Línea(opens in a new tab), The Defiant(opens in a new tab) or Blockworks(opens in a new tab). Local newspapers tend to cover crypto news under Economy or Technology sectors.
Still, a few local creators are producing original content:
- La Última Frontera(opens in a new tab): a show focused on technology and crypto, by Santi Siri(opens in a new tab).
- Blockchain Security Series(opens in a new tab): a podcast about blockchain security, by pablito.eth(opens in a new tab).
- Nova Express(opens in a new tab): a podcast highlighting AI and onchain creators, by @saldasoro(opens in a new tab).
- General crypto media: Criptotendencias(opens in a new tab), Criptonoticias(opens in a new tab).