Bitcoin Standard author: Argentina’s ‘bond Ponzi’ near collapse, Bitcoin is exit

Saifedean Ammous warns Argentina’s high-yield bond strategy is unsustainable, calling it a “Ponzi” that could push investors toward Bitcoin as the peso crumbles.

Economist and The Bitcoin Standard author Saifedean Ammous has warned that Argentina’s financial system is on the brink of collapse, calling President Javier Milei’s economic program a “debt and inflation Ponzi” propped up by unsustainable bond yields and money printing.

In a post on X, Ammous argued that Argentina’s government has created a financial system where bond speculation is the only path to financial security. “The only concrete achievement of his administration so far is that it destroyed the currency and created a shitcoin casino,” he said.

At the center of the crisis is what locals call “la bicicleta financiera,” a high-yield carry trade where investors buy short-term government bonds that offer interest rates exceeding the pace of peso devaluation. According to Ammous, this setup, which has become the country’s most lucrative industry, is a textbook Ponzi scheme.

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