After so many scandals in the world of crypto assets, so many cases of fraud and so many small investors who lost their money, can cryptocurrencies be a kind of refuge in some countries of the world? In countries like Argentina And TürkiyeWhere inflation surges and domestic currencies fluctuate, people have been forced to turn to cryptocurrencies in an attempt to protect their savings.

This is evidenced by the high rates of cryptocurrency ownership in the two countries, with Turkey recording the highest rate in the world at 27.1% and Argentina at 23.5%, while the global average does not exceed 11.9%, according to the research firm. GWI. The common denominator of the two countries with the largest amount of cryptocurrency holdings is rampant inflation, which led to the collapse currency at the same time, it pushed the governments of the two countries into informal capital controls to prevent massive outflows.

In Turkey, even with the official and constantly discussed figures, inflation in March was 50.51%, while Argentina hit a record high of 104%. According to analysts at K33 Research, “In general, cryptocurrency holdings are high in countries with capital controls, financial and political instability.”

The cryptocurrency ownership rate in Turkey is 27.1%, and in Argentina it is 23.5%, while the global average does not exceed 11.9%.

The reflection is clearly visible in the currencies of the two countries, since both Turkish pound and the Argentine peso fell to historical lows. The Turkish lira depreciated, as well as dollar now you can buy 19.5 pounds. At the same time, one dollar on the black market can buy 464 Argentine pesos, more than double the official exchange rate set in the country last year. Thus, a large percentage of the inhabitants of the two countries buy so-called stablecoins, cryptocurrencies that are theoretically pegged to some reliable contract value, such as the US dollar or gold, and thus offer interested parties an alternative, given that dollars are scarce in their countries. Speaking to Reuters, Ehab Zaghlul, head of research at Tribal Credit, a digital payments platform for startups in emerging markets, said: “People, whether retail investors or institutional investors, are looking for ways to protect themselves from the ongoing currency devaluation.”

And as he explains, they are trying to get some assets pegged to a stronger currency. As such, they opt for cryptocurrencies like USDC and USDT, or something related to something stronger like the US dollar. According to Necislava Ober, Analyst at Kaiko, USDT cryptocurrency markets in Turkish lira reached a multi-month high last week due to the ongoing decline of the Turkish currency, as well as the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, which are causing concern in many Turkish circles. .

At the same time, the largest and most famous cryptocurrency, bitcoin, is up 72% year-to-date to $30,000, but bitcoin transaction volume is at a very low level compared to last summer. The reason, of course, was a series of scandals and bankruptcies in the industry, culminating in the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.