The president of the Central Bank said that the government now wants to burn banknotes to destroy them faster.

Santiago Bausili , president of the Central Bank, announced this Friday that the government is considering implementing a new practice: banknote burning , with the goal of destroying old, lifeless paper currency. Bausili even announced that they are already consulting with Brazilian officials to implement the new practice.

"Banknotes have a shelf life. After they pass through so many hands, they're no longer legible at the ATM. When you go to deposit them, they don't fit, and you have to wait in line," he described the consequences of the passage of time on paper.

He explained that there are different categories of banknotes, partly depending on their denomination, and when they are no longer useful, "they must be destroyed."

"You bring me an old one, I'll give you a new one," he explained, describing the exchange of papers circulating in the market.

There was one key factor: the introduction of 10,000 and 20,000 peso bills, a novelty launched by the Milei government with the justification that, due to high inflation, Argentines were forced to go out and shop with large piles of bills.

"That significantly reduces circulation volume and makes administration difficult," Bausili added on the program "Las Tres Anclas," which featured Minister Luis Caputo and is hosted by members of the economic team.

The possibility of burning the banknotes was mentioned, as a joke, by one of the panelists. The president of the Central Bank surprised everyone with his response: "Seriously, we are working on the possibility of burning them."

"We don't have the capacity to destroy enough banknotes," Bausili explained. He added that he had recently spoken with colleagues in Brazil because they already have a "burning mechanism." He added: "We're going to learn."

And he finished with a humorous comment: "We're putting inflation in the oven."

Milei's government has been insisting on the idea of ​​the peso gaining power. In that regard, Bausili said in the same Friday note that the blue dollar is trading below the official dollar "because there are no pesos."

"People don't need to run to the bank, bring cash, and go exchange dollars at the den. The dens are staying for the pesos. It's a change in behavior," said the Central Bank president.

Regarding the possibility of "exporting" pesos, he discussed two specific cases in which investors consulted the government.

"An investor in a fund who knows a lot about macroeconomics and has always been negative about Argentina recently said, 'There are countries that should think of the peso as a reserve currency,'" Bausili began.

"This is the second case," he continued. "There was one that seriously raised the possibility of creating a stablecoin with the peso, with the same objective, with the position that in the medium term the peso would be used as a trading currency, at least in the region."

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies with a stable value, typically pegged to fiat currencies like the dollar or the euro. DAI, USDT (Tether), USDC (Coinbase), and BUSD (Binance) are the most commonly used.