Bitcoin in Argentina: Legal Status, Tax Rules and the Right to Self-Custody

Bitcoin is legal to buy, hold, sell and self-custody in Argentina. Since March 2024, Law 25.246 treats it as a "virtual asset," businesses that exchange or hold it for others must register with the Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV), and banks may not offer it. Individual gains are taxed under the income tax at 5% or 15%, and holdings count for the personal assets tax.

Yes. No Argentine statute I reviewed prohibits owning, buying, selling or self-custodying Bitcoin. The law regulates the businesses that serve others.

The key statute is Law 25.246 on concealment and laundering of criminal assets (Ley 25.246, Encubrimiento y Lavado de Activos de origen delictivo). Law 27.739, published in the Official Gazette (Boletín Oficial) on March 15, 2024, added Article 4 bis.

Under Article 4 bis, a virtual asset (activo virtual) is a digital representation of value that can be traded or transferred digitally and used for payments or investments. Bitcoin fits that definition.

No. No statute I reviewed gives Bitcoin legal tender status, and Law 25.246 keeps the two categories apart.

Article 4 bis states that national legal tender (moneda de curso legal) shall "in no case" be understood as a virtual asset, and it excludes foreign currencies as well.

The CNV's public warning on virtual asset investments adds that its authority covers service providers and does not extend to regulating the assets themselves, unless they qualify as securities.

The Civil and Commercial Code (Código Civil y Comercial de la Nación) does not mention Bitcoin, and I found no court ruling on it in an official portal that I could open.

Article 15 of the Code says persons hold rights over the goods (bienes) that make up their estate. Article 16 says those rights may fall on "goods with economic value" and that "material goods are called things (cosas)." Whether Bitcoin is a good, a thing or something else in insolvency, enforcement or inheritance is a question the sources I opened do not answer.

No. The CNV rules exclude anyone acting on their own account.

The CNV rules, Title XIV, Chapter III, require resident individuals and companies formed in Argentina that act as virtual asset service providers (Proveedores de Servicios de Activos Virtuales, PSAV) to enroll in the PSAV Registry before operating. Law 25.246 defines a PSAV as anyone who, as a business and on behalf of others, exchanges virtual assets for fiat or for other virtual assets, transfers them, or holds them in custody.

The chapter was added by General Resolution 994/2024 (Official Gazette, March 25, 2024). Its articles were replaced by General Resolution 1058/2025 (Official Gazette, March 14, 2025), effective 45 days after publication.

Article 1 lists several exclusions:

Under Article 3, foreign PSAV are covered when, among other cases, they show "a clear targeting of residents" of Argentina or their Argentine business volume exceeds 20% of the total. They must enroll before operating in the country.

Articles 16 to 19 require custodial PSAV to keep customer assets separate from their own, use private-key custody schemes with technological security measures, keep fiat funds separate, and never use customer assets on their own account. Article 9 sets minimum net worth, for example USD 150,000 for exchange and custody categories.

The CNV's registry page links to the public list of enrolled PSAV.

No. The Banco Central de la República Argentina (BCRA) bars banks and payment account providers from carrying out or facilitating these operations.

Communication "A" 7506 of May 5, 2022 states that financial institutions may not carry out or facilitate operations with digital assets, "including crypto-assets," that are not authorized by a competent national regulator. The rule remains in Section 1.1 of the BCRA's complementary services rules, consolidated to September 29, 2026.

Section 4.6 of the BCRA's payment service provider rules, originating in Communication "A" 7759 and consolidated to October 2, 2026, applies the same prohibition to providers offering payment accounts.

In practice: sats change hands through PSAV, not through banks.

Yes, through a registered PSAV. The foreign exchange rules I reviewed contain no Bitcoin-specific restriction.

Since Communication "A" 8226 of April 11, 2025, effective April 14, 2025, institutions may give resident individuals access to the foreign exchange market without the BCRA's prior consent. This eased the controls known as the "cepo."

The readable portion of the BCRA's foreign exchange rules (Exterior y Cambios), consolidated to September 14, 2026, does not mention virtual assets or crypto-assets. Section 3.8 lets individuals buy foreign currency if the purchase is debited from a local account, cash purchases stay within "the equivalent of USD 100" per month, and they sign a sworn statement not to buy securities settled in foreign currency for 90 days.

PSAV are obliged entities that must report to the Financial Information Unit (Unidad de Información Financiera, UIF). Individuals holding their own Bitcoin are not.

Article 6 of Law 25.246 makes the UIF responsible for analyzing and transmitting information to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

UIF Resolution 49/2024, dated March 22, 2024 and published March 25, 2024, sets the PSAV rules. The UIF's table of applicable resolutions still lists it as the only one for PSAV. Article 36(c) requires suspicious transaction reports within 24 hours of concluding that an operation is suspicious, and no later than 90 calendar days from the operation.

The CNV's General Resolution 1139/2026 (Official Gazette, May 14, 2026) added PSAV to the CNV's anti-money laundering rules, with a reporting obligation in force from July 1, 2026.

The travel rule binds PSAV, not your wallet. Article 37 of Resolution 49/2024 requires PSAV to identify the originator and beneficiary of transactions covered by the travel rule (regla de viaje). Article 2(e) defines self-custodied wallets (billeteras autocustodiadas) as software where "the user assumes responsibility for securing their private keys."

Article 8(j) requires each PSAV to decide when it may refuse to credit or suspend a transfer that lacks the required information. Article 34 lists, as a red flag, operations that try to prevent traceability or obtain greater anonymity.

In practice: expect a PSAV to ask who owns the wallet you withdraw to, and to hold transfers missing information.

Gains from selling Bitcoin are income tax (impuesto a las ganancias) income. For individuals, the rate is 5% or 15% depending on currency and source.

Article 2, item 4 of the income tax law (text ordered in 2019 by Decree 824/2019) includes gains from disposing of "digital currencies" (monedas digitales), whoever obtains them. Article 7 treats those gains as Argentine-source when the issuer is domiciled in Argentina.

The tax authority, the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (ARCA, formerly AFIP), explains the treatment in its income tax guidance on crypto-assets:

ARCA's guidance does not address swaps, payments in Bitcoin, lending or airdrops, so I state no rule on them.

No VAT applies to the sale itself. ARCA's VAT guidance says VAT reaches sales of movable things, and crypto-assets, being digital goods, are not taxed on sale. Intermediation services in buying and selling them are taxed.

Yes. ARCA's personal assets tax guidance cites Opinion 2/2022 and Article 19(j) of Law 23.966. It values crypto-assets at year end at acquisition cost, increased by interest, adjustments and exchange differences, under Article 22(h).

ARCA's summary of the tax says residents pay on assets in Argentina and abroad, and non-residents only on assets located in Argentina. For 2025, the exempt minimum is $384.728.044,57.

ARCA's 2025 rate table applies these rates to the value above that minimum:

Compliant taxpayers (cumplidores) have a reduced scale of 0%, 0.25% and 0.50% on the same brackets.

You declare it in your own personal assets and income tax returns, and PSAV report your balances to ARCA.

ARCA's information regime in General Resolution 4614 was amended by General Resolution 5804/2025, published December 24, 2025. Platforms report monthly the accounts, balances and movements of their customers, including "balances in digital currency or cryptocurrencies," with thresholds of $50.000.000 for individuals and $30.000.000 for companies. The changes apply to information returns due from May 2026.

Law 27.799, the Fiscal Innocence law, published January 2, 2026, created a simplified income tax return for resident individuals with total income up to $1.000.000.000 and total assets up to $10.000.000.000. It raised the simple tax evasion threshold to $100.000.000. Its text does not mention virtual assets or digital currencies. Law 27.826, published October 9, 2026, amends it.

Provinces and the City of Buenos Aires levy their own taxes, and their rules differ.

In the City of Buenos Aires, Resolution 93/AGIP/26 of March 6, 2026 (City Official Gazette No. 7323, March 12, 2026) sets the turnover tax (ingresos brutos) base for buying and selling crypto-assets as "the difference between the purchase price and the sale price." It interprets Article 231 of the City Tax Code, as amended by Law 6.926.

The Province of Buenos Aires levies a free transfer of assets tax (Impuesto a la Transmisión Gratuita de Bienes) on inheritances, legacies and donations, under Articles 306 to 327 of its Tax Code. It reaches beneficiaries domiciled in the Province or assets located there. For 2026, its exempt minimums are $23.343.337 for parents, children or spouses and $5.606.568 for other recipients.

In practice: heirs in the Province of Buenos Aires may owe this tax on inherited sats, and they can only declare what they can find.

The main congressional proceeding concerns the $LIBRA token, not Bitcoin.

On April 8, 2025, the Chamber of Deputies approved the creation of an investigative commission on the token by 128 votes to 93, with 7 abstentions. The commission issued its Final Report dated November 18, 2025. I state no conclusion beyond the existence of that report. I found no pending bill on Bitcoin that I could confirm on the Congress sites.

Self-custody is lawful and needs no registration. The CNV rules exclude people acting for themselves and providers of self-custody wallets only.

The obligations fall on PSAV, which apply the travel rule and report balances, and on your own tax returns.

Yes. No Argentine statute I reviewed prohibits owning, buying, selling or self-custodying Bitcoin. Article 4 bis of Law 25.246, added by Law 27.739 in March 2024, defines virtual assets, and businesses that exchange or hold them for others must enroll in the CNV's PSAV Registry. Bitcoin is not legal tender.

No. The CNV rules on virtual asset service providers exclude people who exchange virtual assets for themselves, whatever the amount. Individuals are also exempt when their operations do not exceed UVA 35,000 per calendar month, and providers of self-custody wallets only are excluded as well.

No. BCRA Communication "A" 7506 of May 5, 2022 bars financial institutions from carrying out or facilitating operations with digital assets, including crypto-assets, not authorized by a competent national regulator. Section 4.6 of the payment service provider rules applies the same prohibition to providers offering payment accounts.

ARCA's guidance taxes individuals' Argentine-source gains at 5% for sales in pesos without adjustment clauses and 15% for sales in foreign currency, under Article 98 of the income tax law. Foreign-source gains are taxed at 15% in all cases. Losses offset only similar gains, in the same year or the next five.

Yes. ARCA cites Article 19(j) of Law 23.966 and values crypto-assets at acquisition cost at year end. For 2025, the tax applies to the value above $384.728.044,57, at 0.50%, 0.75% or 1.00%. Residents pay on assets in Argentina and abroad, and non-residents only on assets located in Argentina.

It binds PSAV, not your wallet. Article 37 of UIF Resolution 49/2024 requires PSAV to identify the originator and beneficiary of transfers covered by the travel rule, and Article 8(j) lets a PSAV refuse to credit or suspend a transfer lacking that information. Expect questions about withdrawal addresses.

This article is general information and not legal advice.

To see how Argentina compares with other countries, open The Bitcoin Act's interactive Global Bitcoin Regulatory Map. It sets legal status, self-custody, tax and seizure risk side by side across jurisdictions: https://thebitcoinact.xyz/bitcoin-legal-map

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