Developing Countries and Bitcoin: Argentina, Paraguay, Nigeria

Bitcoin in developing countries solves different problems than in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. In Argentina it protects savings from a currency that lost over 94% of its purchasing power between 2022 and 2025, and gets around capital controls. In Nigeria it is a way to send money across borders, and it kept going even when the central bank banned banks from serving crypto trading. In Paraguay it is not about saving at all but about cheap hydropower for miners. What all three share: most people use dollar stablecoins more than bitcoin.

How hyperinflation unfolded in Weimar, Zimbabwe and Venezuela is told in The history of hyperinflation. How one state made bitcoin legal tender and what remained of it is in El Salvador: the first country with bitcoin as legal tender. This article is about three countries where bitcoin plays a role without a state programme, each for a different reason.

Why bitcoin is used differently in developing countries

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, bitcoin is an investment. Your salary arrives in euros or francs, inflation was a few percent in most years, and you can transfer your money abroad at any time. You buy bitcoin because you are betting on long-term appreciation.

In many developing countries exactly these foundations are missing:

• High inflation: the local currency loses a quarter, half or more of its value every year. Saving in local currency means losing for sure.
• Capital controls: the state limits how many dollars you may buy or send abroad. Often there is an official and an unofficial exchange rate.
• Expensive transfers: anyone receiving money from relatives abroad often pays high fees with traditional providers.
• Little trust in banks: many have experienced frozen accounts or forced conversions themselves.

Bitcoin offers something on each point: a fixed supply no central bank can increase, payments across borders without a bank, and property no one can freeze as long as you hold the keys yourself. But it has one weakness that weighs more heavily in these countries: it swings a lot. If you must pay rent next month, you cannot wait out a 30% drop.

The Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index

The best-known country ranking for crypto use is published every year by the analytics firm Chainalysis. It does not measure a share of the population but activity: inflows to crypto services, person-to-person trading, cross-border payments and balances, each weighted by purchasing power. The 2026 edition covers July 2025 to June 2026 and compares 117 countries.

Source: Chainalysis, Global Crypto Adoption Index 2025 and 2026 (published 23 Sep 2026). The method was revised in 2026, so ranks are only roughly comparable.

Two things matter when reading it. The index counts all crypto assets, not just bitcoin, and in Latin America and Africa dollar stablecoins make up a large share. According to Chainalysis, Latin America's crypto economy grew 9.8% in the 2026 period, driven by a shift to stablecoins and hedging against currency swings. And a high rank does not mean many people own bitcoin. How the share of owners worldwide is estimated is shown in Bitcoin adoption on the S-curve.

Nigeria: bank ban, P2P trading and the naira

With over 200 million people, Nigeria has Africa's largest population, a very young one, and a big diaspora that sends money home. On top of that comes a weak currency.

The 2021 bank ban. On 5 February 2021 the Central Bank of Nigeria instructed banks to close the accounts of companies and individuals trading crypto assets. The aim was to dry up crypto trading. The result was the opposite: trading moved to platforms where buyers and sellers deal directly and transfer naira from account to account without the bank seeing what for. How such trading works and which scams to watch for is explained in Buying peer-to-peer: Bisq, HodlHodl & Co..

The eNaira. In October 2021 Nigeria became one of the first countries to launch central bank digital currency. According to the International Monetary Fund, over 98% of eNaira wallets were unused in the year after launch. More in Digital euro and bitcoin.

Devaluation and inflation. In June 2023 the central bank gave up the fixed exchange rate. By early 2024 the naira had lost about two thirds of its official value against the dollar. According to the national statistics bureau, inflation was 28.9% in December 2023 and 34.8% in December 2024.

The U-turn. In December 2023 the central bank lifted the bank ban and allowed accounts for licensed crypto services. In 2024 the state moved against the exchange Binance, accusing it of influencing the naira exchange rate; Binance stopped naira trading. In 2025 the new Investments and Securities Act placed digital assets under the oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria.

Argentina: inflation, the cepo and Milei

Argentina is the textbook case of a country where nobody keeps savings in the local currency. The peso has gone through several crises, devaluations and a sovereign default in recent decades. Those who can save in dollars, once as banknotes in the cupboard, today increasingly as stablecoins on their phones.

The cepo. From 2019, currency controls, called the "cepo" (shackle) in Argentina, limited how many dollars a person could buy, at times $200 a month. An unofficial rate emerged alongside, the "dólar blue", at times more than twice the official one. Bitcoin and stablecoins were a way to reach dollar assets without crossing the border.

Inflation in numbers. According to the statistics office INDEC, consumer prices rose:

Anyone who saved 100’000 pesos at the end of 2021 could buy with them at the end of 2025 only as much as about 5’800 pesos bought four years earlier.

Milei. Javier Milei, a self-declared follower of the Austrian School, became president in December 2023. His government devalued the peso by over 50% in its first days, cut public spending sharply and achieved a budget surplus. Inflation fell to 31.5% in 2025, the lowest annual figure since 2017. In April 2025 the government lifted the cepo for individuals. Milei did not make bitcoin legal tender, and his promotion of the LIBRA memecoin in February 2025, which crashed shortly after, brought him a political scandal. How the Austrian School thinks about money is explained in The Austrian School and bitcoin.

What does that mean for bitcoin in Argentina? With falling inflation and free dollar purchases, some of the reasons to flee the peso fall away. In the Chainalysis index, Argentina dropped out of the top 20 in 2026. Bitcoin remains a savings instrument for many, but for everyday life the dollar dominates, as cash or as stablecoin.

Paraguay: hydropower, Itaipú and miners

Paraguay is the special case among the three. The guaraní is comparatively stable and inflation is low. Bitcoin matters here because the country has something miners need: cheap, clean electricity in abundance.

Itaipú. The dam on the Paraná, run jointly by Paraguay and Brazil since the 1980s, is one of the largest hydropower plants in the world. Each country is entitled to half its power. Paraguay needs only part of it and sells the rest to Brazil. Together with the Yacyretá plant, almost all of the country's electricity comes from hydropower.

The miners arrive. Since around 2021, mining companies have built large sites in Paraguay, including listed miners such as Bitfarms and HIVE. For the country this brings revenue for power that would otherwise be exported cheaply. How mining works economically and why the power price decides almost everything is in Bitcoin mining explained.

The dispute. In 2022 President Mario Abdo Benítez vetoed a law meant to regulate and promote crypto mining. Since then, government, parliament and the state utility ANDE have wrangled over higher tariffs for miners and over illegal connections through which mining rigs tap power. For Paraguay, bitcoin is above all a question of energy policy.

The three countries compared

What this means for you in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

The stories from these countries are often told as proof that bitcoin "saves the world". The figures show a more sober picture, from which you can still learn something.

Bitcoin is insurance you hopefully never need. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland you do not have to flee your currency. But the euro too has lost noticeable purchasing power since 2020, as Inflation and loss of purchasing power shows. The countries above show what happens when it gets worse: whoever already holds bitcoin in self-custody no longer needs a way in.

Custody beats everything. In Nigeria, bitcoin on an exchange with a naira account would not have helped during the bank ban. What helped was holding the keys yourself and being able to trade directly with others.

Sending money home. If you send money from Germany, Austria or Switzerland to family in Nigeria or Argentina, you can do it via bitcoin or stablecoins. Exchanges and brokers must record and pass on sender and recipient details, in the EU since 30 December 2024, in Switzerland since 2019. What that means is explained in FATF travel rule: what exchanges must store about you.