The Peseta is reborn (again) in cryptocurrency form and soars 120,000% in a week.
The Peseta, which gave way in 2002 to the euro and disappeared just over half a year ago, returned in less than a month in the form of a cryptocurrency. This last week it has managed to have a revaluation of 120,000%. This rise is because one of the leading cryptocurrency websites, Coinmarketcap..., now has the price of the Peseta after appearing on another of the reference sites, Coingecko.
According to the token's promoters, La Peseta Digital had a market capitalization of 2.7 million dollars. This Friday, it surpassed 115 million dollars, and only 24 hours later, it fell to 50 million dollars. After 134 years in circulation, the Peseta gave way to the euro in 2002. The Spanish currency that debuted in 1868 said its last farewell just a few months ago when the Bank of Spain stopped accepting them for European money. It disappeared later than expected since the Government extended its deadline for exchanging them for euros by six months due to the coronavirus pandemic. Less than a month later, La Peseta Digital was created, a cryptocurrency that aims to remind us of the coins we carried in our pockets for so long.
The new token has reached a revaluation of 120,000% in one week, from Friday to Friday, thanks to the fact that its quotation has been picked up by one of the leading websites of the crypto world, coinmarketcap, just a few hours after appearing on another of the reference websites, Coingecko. According to the promoters of the token, and with data from the portal poocoin.app, at the beginning of August, La Peseta Digital had a market capitalization of 2.7 million dollars. This Friday, it surpassed 115 million on the same portal, but it had fallen to 50 million by midday on Saturday.
In any case, some investors have already made a juicy profit. According to the same portal, one cryptocurrency trader has already sold La Peseta Digital for more than 30,000 dollars and another for more than 27,000. But where did this new cryptocurrency come from? The promoters announced yesterday the creation of a limited company named Crypto Digital SL, located in the Mallorcan municipality of Inca. According to the commercial register, with a share capital of 63,800 euros, the purpose of the company created at the end of September is "the purchase and sale of bitcoins and in general of any type of virtual currencies in exchange for commission through internet platforms", as well as the "commercialization of all types of computer products".
In this regard, this newspaper has been able to trace its origin to a small computer store in the municipality, Kuuzam, which in November 2020 announced that it was accepting payments in cryptocurrencies. Shortly after, in May, they offered to advise those interested in buying cryptocurrencies, and in July, they talked about it being their "most exciting and ambitious project." La Peseta's CEO, Luis Miralles, is also the general manager of Kuuzam.
The website indicates that La Peseta is a decentralized finance project (DeFi) created in the Binance Smart Chain network to be used as a form of payment. They have issued 47 billion cryptocurrencies "in honor of the 47 million Spaniards", of which only 78% are in circulation. To buy them, it is necessary to have a digital wallet in TrustWallet and funds in Binance, one of the main crypto exchange houses. They can currently be bought and sold on Latoken, PancakeSwap, Dexguru, and PooCoin. The crypto asset project is also a sponsor of the futsal club of his hometown, Ciutat D'Inca Futsal, which plays in the first regional league and to which Miralles himself is linked.
Another 'nostalgic' crypto project
The new 'criptopeseta' is not the first one that appeals to the currency used by the Spanish throughout the 20th century. In 2014, a cryptocurrency called Pesetacoin was born, which was renamed Peseta Digital in May of this same year. However, after a few initial weeks of speculative euphoria that led it to exceed 0.08 dollars per token, its value fell below 0.0004 euros between 2015 and mid-2017, when it began to rebound, reaching record highs in January this year above 0.17 euros per token.
In this case, the number of coins issued is 166,386,000 'digital pesetas,' commemorating the 2002 euro exchange rate, which was 166.386 pesetas. With an issuance system similar to bitcoin, it is expected that the last of this type of 'digital pesetas' will be minted in 2029. For 0.0008 dollars, its current market capitalization is 122,000 dollars, one-thousandth of that achieved this Friday by its namesake.
Another similar project
This 'crypto-pasta is not the first one to be created about the currency used by the Spanish during the 20th century. In 2014 the Pesetacoin was born, which was renamed Peseta Digital in the middle of this year. In the first weeks of its creation, it reached a value of 0.08 dollars per token, but its value fell between 2015 and 2017 to a value of 0.0004 dollars per token, although it began to rebound until it reached 0.17 dollars/token in January this year. They are currently priced at $0.0008 and have a market capitalization of $122,000, one-thousandth of that achieved this Friday by their namesake. Moreover, this type of 'digital pesetas' is expected to end in 2029.