A $10,000 stack of Argentine pesos kept in cash since 2016 would be worth about $114 in US dollars today. That's the math behind the Exodus Economy report, which documents what it calls bottom-up dollarization across Latin America — and it's why stablecoins have stopped being a niche trading instrument and become how people get paid.
The peso math
The report's central example is brutal. An Argentine who held 10,000 pesos in cash for a decade watched nearly 99% of its dollar value evaporate. The dollar, in response, has moved into everyday life across the region. Workers collect salaries in stablecoins. Businesses run revenue and supplier payments in digital dollars. This isn't a policy choice from central banks — it's happening on the ground, wallet by wallet.
Stablecoin flows, by the numbers
The flows are big enough to measure. On Argentine wallet Lemon, median withdrawals ran between $150 and $270 in the first half of 2026, with an average of $544 across 215,597 transfers. Bitso's stablecoin corridor hit a $31.5 billion annualized pace in 2026, counting gross bidirectional movement. More than 99% of tracked stablecoin withdrawal volume moved onward within 30 days — people aren't parking this money, they're spending it.
Retail image, institutional reality
Antônia Souza, Visa's digital-currency director for LATAM, says institutions account for the largest flows, mainly business-to-business. That's a useful correction to the retail picture. The median wallet transfer is small, but the volume behind it is corporate.
Dollars come with their own risks
Reza Bundy, CEO of Atlas Capital Team, draws a line between nominal dollar exposure and real purchasing power. Holding dollars protects against local-currency depreciation, he argues, but US inflation can still erode what those dollars buy. Stablecoins add issuer, platform and custody risk on top. Long-duration Treasuries are sensitive to inflation expectations, interest rates and term premium — when yields rise, the market value of a long bond can fall sharply.
Bundy warns that cap-weighted US tech indices concentrate money in a few names. He favors shorter-duration bonds and assets that respond differently to inflation. Disclosure: Bundy leads Atlas Capital Team, adviser to the Atlas America Fund, Atlas AI Labs and the planned USAFi issuer — so his preferences come with commercial interests attached.
The open question is whether regulators catch up with the custody gap. A BeInCrypto audit of 12 dollar-account products for LATAM customers found only two held customer balances in insured US bank deposits; five used stablecoins. That gap between convenience and safety is the next thing to watch.
