Crypto Manual: What Are Cryptocurrencies and What Types of Investments Are They For?

In the summer of 2025, a historic phenomenon took place that went unnoticed by many, but it marks a turning point in the digital world: thousands of Argentines vacationed in Brazil and used the neighboring country's instant payment system, better known as PIX, to pay for their services and purchases. Why does this signify a turning point? By paying with Argentine pesos using this tool in Brazil, thousands of people used crypto in their daily lives without knowing it. The event, perhaps insignificant to many, presents a before and after: that summer, the bridge between cryptocurrencies and everyday life began to quietly take shape. Indeed, the adoption of cryptocurrencies continues to grow, often invisibly and unknowingly. "People are using it, but they don't see it. They are starting to implement crypto wallets, but they don't care if crypto is behind it; what matters is that they are gaining more freedom," explains Maximiliano Raimondi, CFO of Lemon, the virtual wallet with over 5.5 million users in the region. According to Chainalysis' 2025 crypto adoption index, Argentina ranks 20th in implementation worldwide. If the analysis focuses on Latin America, the country ranks second regionally with a transaction volume of US$93.9 billion. Additionally, it is worth noting that 19.8% of the Argentine population uses cryptocurrencies. Although adoption is widespread, there is still significant ignorance about these types of assets. Many associate them with scams or, seeing their volatility, distrust grows towards them. In this series of notes titled "Crypto Manual," we aim to make this universe accessible to the reader; the goal is to provide simple explanations and analyses from industry experts to bring this ecosystem closer to those who are still unfamiliar with it.

What Are Cryptocurrencies?

First of all, to provide a precise definition of the concept, it is necessary to clarify that under the term "cryptocurrencies," a wide variety of assets coexist, with very different purposes and designs as well: from bitcoin to stablecoins like USDT and the famous memecoins. Some function as money in the typical sense of the term - for paying, storing value - while others are designed to avoid volatility - the stablecoins, which, for example, maintain a one-to-one parity with the dollar or other currencies; others provide access to infrastructure that allows for other operations - such as ether, the token of ethereum, which functions as money but also as the "fuel" for a global network of programmable financial contracts. Now, if cryptocurrencies are so different, what do they all have in common that they are called by the same name?

• They exist on a blockchain: cryptocurrencies live on a blockchain, a type of digital network that, unlike conventional databases, is decentralized (it has no intermediaries, as it is not managed by institutions or financial entities) and is protected by cryptography, making it immutable. In the words of Manuel Ferrari, president of NGO Bitcoin Argentina and co-founder of Money On Chain, "cryptocurrencies operate on technological networks ---like the blockchains of bitcoin or ethereum--- which can be simply imagined as a kind of <>, but without a bank in the middle".
• They are decentralized: "This means that, generally, they are not issued by any central authority, which theoretically makes them immune to interference or <> by any government," explains Tomás Field, public relations manager at Lemon. The specialist adds the word "generally", as many other networks that are not bitcoin, although they have technical decentralization, have development teams or foundations with greater influence.
• Their validity does not depend on a central institution, but rather trust is placed in the protocol: "In the traditional financial system, there is always an institution with administrative access: it can edit records, block accounts, reverse transactions. In a decentralized network, the record does not live on a central server: it is replicated simultaneously on thousands of computers around the world. To rewrite the history of that network, one would need to control the majority of that computing power at the same time," explains Rafael De Ambrosi, CEO of Twin.
• They can be transferred without intermediaries like a bank or a government: "It is money that does not belong to anyone, neither to a government nor to a bank. It exists because thousands of computers around the world agree that it exists, and that’s it. With traditional money, someone in power decides how much there is of it and can change that whenever they want," shares financial analyst Mariel Lang Sáez.

What types of cryptocurrencies exist?

Specialists explain that under the term cryptocurrencies, very different assets coexist. To understand them, it is advisable to ask where the value of each one comes from and what function is sought to be satisfied with them.

Where are we headed?

Many experts say that just as debit cards are used or bank transfers are made daily without knowing the technology behind them, the same will happen in the not-so-distant future with crypto: its adoption will be enormous, although often without knowing that it is being used as a technological support. "We will use blockchain infrastructure without knowing that we are using it, just as we use the internet today without thinking about the protocols that support it. International payments will be settled in seconds at marginal cost, financial assets (stocks, bonds, funds) will live on-chain and move with the same fluidity as a file does today," explains De Ambrosi, emphasizing that what will change most profoundly is not the technology, but the relationship of people with their own money: "Today, most people do not really control their assets; they are held in custody by a bank or platform that can block, restrict, or go bankrupt, but blockchain infrastructure makes it possible for that custody to be their own." This speaks of financial inclusion for people who have not had access to the system until now. Lang Sáez highlights that "there are over a billion people without a bank account in the world. With a phone, they can have a wallet in two minutes. The traditional system never reached there." In this regard, Ferrari comments, referring to bitcoin: "For the first time, there is the possibility of accessing a scarce, global digital asset without intermediaries, which cannot be easily manipulated by any actor. For many, that is the most relevant change: the possibility for anyone to access a form of money that is more predictable and less dependent on power structures." Many consider them to be instruments widely used to hide operations; however, data from Chainalysis and TRM Labs indicate that illicit activity linked to cryptocurrencies has drastically decreased between early 2023 and mid-2025. In numbers, only between 0.018% and 0.023% of the total transaction volume conducted by June 2025 on the seven largest centralized exchange platforms by volume was directly linked to illicit addresses. "Blockchain analytics data consistently shows that less than 1% of the crypto transaction volume is linked to illicit activity. The traditional financial system, with all its regulatory infrastructure, remains the main channel for money laundering on a global scale," points out De Ambrosi, explaining that wallets (the virtual wallets on the blockchain) are pseudonymous, not anonymous. He clarifies that while it is true that the irreversibility of transactions makes them attractive for certain frauds (if you were tricked into sending crypto, there is no bank, wallet, or centralized institution that can reverse the operation), he also emphasizes that each transaction made is permanently recorded in a public ledger.