Argentina's BIND Group Develops Peso-Pegged Stablecoin Aimed at Institutional Clients

BIND Group, an Argentine banking holding company with more than $2 billion in assets under management, is building a peso-pegged stablecoin through its virtual asset service provider BEN, according to Huoxing Finance. The token is designed for institutional users and positioned as "programmable money" for services such as fund management and automated, on-chain event-driven payments. BIND Group also said it has partnered with Circle to offer BEN clients institutional-grade payments and treasury and fund-management services structured to meet local regulatory requirements. Separately, the Petersen Group is pursuing its own peso-pegged stablecoin project via a subsidiary, with support from crypto-as-a-service provider Lirium. The product, called DIPE, has already produced a whitepaper. Lirium also supplies related infrastructure to Banco Galicia and Brubank. The initiatives are being developed by entities backed by banking groups rather than by the banks themselves. Argentina's central bank has barred private banks from providing crypto-related services to customers since May 2022. Beyond payments, the projects are aimed at institutional use cases including treasury operations, collateralized credit management, and programmable settlement flows. In March, Argentina's securities regulator deemed the peso-linked stablecoin argt a security and said it had been issued without meeting required regulatory compliance.