Paraguay Ueno Bank has collapsed, stablecoins become a liquidity alternative

According to Cointelegraph, Paraguay's digital bank Ueno was taken over by the central bank on November 3, leaving nearly 3 million customers (about 60% of the country's adults) unable to access their accounts.

The central bank stated that its solvency ratio fell below half of the statutory minimum requirement, with investigations revealing suspicious loan operations and accounting deficiencies in credit documents. The incident triggered a political crisis, with thousands taking to the streets to protest, and President Santiago Peña attempted to resign before being impeached, later arrested on charges of breach of trust and abuse of power for personal gain.

The local P2P crypto market immediately reflected the turmoil, with some sellers marking up USDt by as much as 13%; the local currency, Guarani, fell 12.3% within a week, leading some citizens to turn to stablecoins for value preservation or to maintain payments.

David Eisenmann, founder of the Paraguayan crypto exchange X4T, stated that the takeover occurred just as salaries, rents, and vendor invoices were due at the beginning of the month, leaving many business owners unable to pay wages. As of November 9, the central bank reported that 93.1% of Ueno's deposit customers had been compensated.