Karla Barker 
Paraguay’s peer-to-peer crypto market showed modest premiums for Bitcoin and USDT in early November as a bank failure unsettled savers and currency markets. The premiums were not huge, but they were visible.
P2P premiums and currency pressure
CriptoNoticias data tracking Binance P2P put Bitcoin’s indicative buying price at 498 million guaranÃes on Nov. 6. At about 6,469 guaranÃes per dollar, that equaled $76,982.53, or roughly a 1.7% premium over the international price of $75,716. For USDT, a Nov. 5 review of Binance P2P ads found a median buying price of 6,399 guaranÃes, about 4% above the previous day’s central bank dollar reference rate. The gap narrowed as the official rate caught up with the guaranÃ’s fall.
Google Trends data showed rising searches for Bitcoin and the US dollar. Bitcoin searches began climbing on Oct. 23 and peaked on Oct. 30, before Ueno Bank’s closure was formally announced. Interest remained visible as of press time, according to the report.
Ueno Bank collapse and political fallout
Paraguay’s central bank started resolution proceedings against Ueno Bank on Nov. 2 after finding its solvency ratio had fallen below half the legal minimum. The digital lender served nearly 3 million people. The move blocked deposit access and raised concerns about roughly $850 million in public-sector deposits, including pension and healthcare funds. Yes, that includes money that many people rely on.
The disruption hit foreign exchange quickly. ABC Color reported the dollar’s retail selling price rose from 5,900 guaranÃes on Oct. 30 to 6,500 on Nov. 5, an appreciation of about 10.2%. President Santiago Peña, who once held a stake in the business group controlling Ueno Bank, denied wrongdoing and said he sold the investment in March 2025. He offered to resign on Nov. 5. Lawmakers continued impeachment proceedings the next day. Peña pledged to cooperate with investigators and pressed authorities to pay affected depositors. The central bank has begun payments under deposit-guarantee rules, starting with eligible customers holding up to 10 million guaranÃes.
Crypto executives make their case
Crypto executives used the episode to argue that decentralized assets can limit exposure to bank failures. Emin Gün Sirer, founder of Ava Labs, said assets like Bitcoin and AVAX are held outside conventional institutions and cannot be frozen without consent. Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3, argued that Bitcoin as a parallel rail could reduce the impact of systemic banking failures. He said JAN3 met with Paraguay’s central bank years earlier to discuss Bitcoin adoption. Aave founder Stani Kulechov also said Bitcoin matters more now.
What comes next
The next test is whether local Bitcoin and stablecoin activity stays elevated as authorities return deposits and try to restore confidence. That is not guaranteed. Premiums can fade quickly once bank access improves or the currency stabilizes. For now, the data shows Paraguayans paying a little more for crypto while they wait for the banking system to settle.