Bitcoin-friendly Javier Milei wins Argentina presidential election

November 20, 2023 Alex Rustok

Argentina’s Bitcoin (BTC)-friendly Javier Milei won the country’s presidential run-off election on Nov. 19, beating out his opponent Sergio Massa.

With almost 99% of the vote counted, Milei won over 55% of the votes with a nearly 3 million vote lead according to Bloomberg data.

Massa, the country’s minister of economy, called Milei to congratulate him on the victory after more than 90% of the votes were counted — before the announcement of the first official results. Milei will take office on December 10.

With nearly 100% of the vote counted, Milei had an over 10 percentage point lead on Massa. Source: Bloomberg

Argentina’s long-lasting inflation crisis has been a heated topic in the South American country, with the Argentine peso recording over a 140% increase in annual inflation in the last 12 months.

Milei has been vocal about his criticisms toward the country’s central bank, referring to it as a scam and a “mechanism by which politicians cheat the good people with inflationary tax.”

He’s referred to Bitcoin as a movement toward “the return of money to its original creator, the private sector.”

Related: Bitcoin price hits all-time highs across Argentina, Nigeria and Turkey

However, he has not signaled any intention to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country.

Massa’s views on the money, banking and cryptocurrency industry appear to be polar opposite to Milei.

In October, he pledged to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) if elected to “solve” Argentina’s long-lasting inflation crisis.

Massa won the first round of Argentina’s presidential election in October. However, it wasn’t enough to win the presidency outright, triggering the final run-off vote.

Prior to that, Milei won Argentina’s primary election against Messi and other candidates in August.

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