Image by Brigitte Werner from Pixabay

For a person who does not live in Argentina, Lemon Cash and Ripio may not mean much.

For a person who does not live in Argentina, Allende & Brea law firm may not mean much.

However, for those of us who live in Argentina, we know that we are talking about heavyweights. Companies of enormous prestige, with very successful trajectories demonstrable over many years.

Lemon Cash is a virtual wallet, founded by two young Argentine entrepreneurs, Marcelo Cavazzoli and Borja Martel in 2019. Today it is the most used crypto application in all of Latin America. In its first years, it raised more than 44 million dollars in investment rounds. In 2021, it launched Lemon Card and led the fusion between traditional finance and decentralized finance with blockchain. It surpassed one million users, launched one of the largest collections of NFTs in the world, and in 2023 it began to expand throughout Latin America. The VISA Lemon Card gives you a cryptocurrency cash back for every purchase made with it. The user loads their card with crypto, and when paying, the retailer receives Argentine pesos. It is a VISA card, so it is accepted anywhere in the world where VISA is accepted.

Lemon Cash has today (first half of 2014), 2.6 million users in Latin America, 950k Lemon Cards, 30 available tokens, and 19 deposit networks. Lemon's Telegram community is really vibrant and very noisy, with more than 100k messages per month. Lemon is a partner of AAVE, CIRCLE and VISA. Users can check proof of reserves and solvency in-app in real time.

Ripio was created by another young Argentine, Sebastián Serrano, in 2013. Today it reaches more than 7 million users in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, the United States, Spain, and Colombia.

In 2020, Ripio became the only Latin American company in the cryptocurrency sector selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a pioneer in technology.

The company evolved to cover various sectors of the crypto ecosystem, offering small and large companies some services so that they can boost their respective businesses by taking advantage of blockchain technology. An example of these services is “Crypto as a service”, so that various companies can access the blockchain infrastructure through API integrations. It also offers the “tokenization” service, which helps companies issue tokens to boost their business. Ripio also has a Ripio Card VISA, which offers cash back in cryptocurrency for every purchase made with it. Users can see the proof of reserves in the application.

Allende & Brea is one of the largest law firms in Argentina and Latin America. It is among the top 5 law firms in the country in corporate M&A, Arbitration and Internet & Telcos matters. It is well recognized for its professionalism and coverage in different branches of industry and branches of law, and for its comprehensive legal service for local and foreign investment.

The General Inspection of Justice ("IGJ"), an agency dependent on the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of the Argentine Republic, has the function of supervising stock companies, limited liability companies, foreign companies, companies that carry out capitalization and savings operations, and civil associations and foundations. Due to the importance of the registry and control functions under its charge, the IGJ has a transcendent role in the economic and social life of the country, both in terms of business development and the common good.

In Argentina, cryptocurrencies are covered by the Asset Regularization Regime. According to current regulations, cryptocurrencies are held in one of the local platforms adhering to the registry of Virtual Asset Service Providers (PSAV). Both Lemon Cash and Ripio are registered in the PSAV.

Having concluded this brief preamble for non-Argentines, I will now recount a historic event that took place a couple of days ago in Argentina, specifically on July 24.

The General Inspection of Justice (IGJ) approved a limited liability company (SRL) whose capital was contributed in cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrencies were transferred between two digital wallets, one owned by the newly formed company and the other owned by one of its stockholders, to constitute a portion of the share capital. The Allende & Brea team carried out the operation and achieved acceptance by the Argentine regulatory body. The cryptocurrencies used were BTC and USDC. This is the first case of its kind in Argentina and Latin America.

The cryptocurrencies were transferred from a personal stockholder`s Lemon Cash virtual wallet to the Ripio Company`s wallet. Two digital wallets were opened, one personal in Lemon Cash and another for the company in Ripio, and the capital was transferred through them.

According to Allende & Brea, a “certificate of valuation” of the cryptocurrencies was obtained at the time of the contribution by Lemon Cash and Ripio. This is very important, since the cryptocurrency quote is 24/7 and never closes, as is the case with other assets such as stocks that have an opening and closing price.

The transparency of the operation and compliance with legal requirements also required the participation of two other professionals, an accountant and a notary. The accountant certified the value of the cryptocurrencies at the time of the transfer, based on the data on the Ripio website. The notary verified the existence of the accounts and the fact of the transfer itself.

The General Inspection of Justice (IGJ) showed an adequacy that is uncommon in government agencies, proving to be up to date with current technologies and modern tools to apply innovative, pioneering regulations, not only in Latin America, but also throughout the world. The event marks a precedent in Argentine corporate law, as well as showing an innovative path for the adoption of cryptoassets. In this way, the country establishes, through concrete practice, the legal security of investments in this new class of assets that humanity has been familiar with for just over ten years.

Conclusion

There are about four generations of Argentines who do not know what it is like to live without inflation. It is a cancer that is difficult to remove, and that seems to be part of the national DNA. The modern generations, millennials and the next, have received an unexpected gift, which we older generations did not have. It is a gift that turns what is usually known as “money” into a mathematical problem, and not a matter for politicians. The crypto ecosystem was immediately accepted by the rebellious young Argentines. They began to do wonders from the beginning with the DeFi platforms and with the virtual wallets that provided them with protection against the abuses of politicians. Politicians find no other solution than to issue and issue money to cover up the misdeeds they commit. In this sense, after ten years of evolution, it is very healthy that the institutions are aligning themselves with a revolution that has no way back, developing a legal and operational framework for the crypto ecosystem. We are going in the right direction, even though there is still much to regulate to avoid scams and money laundering crimes and the like. But mathematics will always find a path that cannot be discussed or “interpreted” with political arguments.

Thank you for visiting me. Decentralize as much as you can in all your daily actions. It is not about waiting for a revolution that will take many years to come. It is about decentralizing as much as possible starting today. I am not interested in having any relationship, not even a conflict, with centralized systems. It is about starting today. Remmeber, being rich is having money, being wealthy is having time.