Stablecoins vs. Gold: Why Gen-Z in Turkey and Argentina Prefers USDT Over Physical Bars

For decades, Turkish and Argentine savers fought inflation by buying physical gold and stashing U.S. dollar bills at home.

Today, a large share of their children and younger workers are doing something very different: they open a crypto app and move into USDT.

This shift is not a meme-trade trend. It is a structural change in how Gen-Z in two high-inflation economies protects savings, moves money, and plans for the future.

Below is a data-driven look at why USDT is beating physical gold bars for young people in Turkey and Argentina.

Key Takeaways

Gen-Z in Turkey and Argentina uses USDT as a primary hedge against inflation instead of physical gold.
Stablecoins like USDT are easier to buy, sell, and store on a phone than gold bars or jewelry.
USDT fits digital lifestyles by integrating with online work, remittances, and everyday payments.
Gold still matters as long-term, issuer-free collateral but is less practical for small, frequent transactions.
A mix of stablecoins for liquidity and gold for long-term security gives young savers a balanced strategy.

The Macro Backdrop: Inflation, Currency Collapse, and Dollar Hunger

Turkey: From Lira Crisis to Crypto Lifeline

Turkey has lived through years of high and volatile inflation.

Official data shows:

Inflation peaked around 85% in 2022.
It remained extremely high through 2023–2024, with annual CPI above 50% in both years.
By late 2025, inflation had cooled but was still above 30% year-on-year.

Over the same period, the lira has lost massive value against the dollar; one analysis notes that the lira lost well over 400% of its purchasing power between 2020 and 2024.

In this environment, crypto is not a niche speculation:

Turkey is among the top countries globally by crypto trading volume, with the domestic crypto sector projected to generate billions of dollars in annual revenue.
User numbers are projected in the tens of millions, roughly a third of the population.

Crucially for this topic, adoption is skewed young:

Surveys indicate that more than half of adults aged 18–60 have invested in crypto, up sharply since 2021.
The majority of investors are 18–44, with a large share in the 18–30 bracket and growing female participation.

For this cohort, crypto is effectively a mass-market savings and investment tool.

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Argentina: Hyperinflation and De Facto Dollarization

Argentina is the textbook case of why people flee local money.

Annual inflation in 2023 exceeded 200%, the highest level in more than three decades.
Inflation for 2024 still ended in the triple digits despite aggressive adjustment policies.
By mid-2025, reforms had slowed monthly inflation significantly, but annual inflation was still very high by global standards.

Decades of crisis have driven Argentines to hoard foreign currency and move assets outside the banking system:

International institutions and local analysts estimate that Argentines hold hundreds of billions of dollars in assets outside the formal financial sector or literally “under the mattress.”

Against this backdrop, crypto (especially stablecoins) has become a parallel financial rail:

Analytics firms estimate that Argentina led Latin America in crypto value received over the year to mid-2024, with volumes in the tens of billions of dollars.

So both countries share the same macro story: persistent inflation, weak local currency, and a population that does not trust domestic money or banks.

Gold as the Traditional Inflation Hedge

Turkey’s Massive “Under-the-Mattress” Gold

In Turkey, physical gold is almost a parallel banking system.

Turkey’s central bank has estimated that citizens hold on the order of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of gold at home.
Physical gold has long been the preferred asset for households trying to protect themselves from high inflation.

Gold jewelry, coins, and bars are deeply embedded in cultural and family practices, from dowries to wedding gifts. In a world where bank deposits can be frozen or inflated away, a gold bracelet feels safer than a lira savings account.

Argentina’s Mix of Dollars and Gold

Argentina’s hedge instincts historically centered on U.S. cash rather than gold, but gold is increasingly part of the mix.

Argentina is widely cited as one of the largest holders of physical U.S. dollar bills outside the United States, with government initiatives explicitly targeting “dollars under the mattress.”
Local media and researchers describe Argentines as “dollar-obsessed,” and highlight that the government is trying to lure undeclared dollar savings back into banks.

Gold has become a supplemental hedge:

Market reports from 2024–2025 point out that gold jewelry in Argentina often trades with buy-sell spreads around 10–15%.
Citizens can buy gold up to certain monthly thresholds without disclosing the source of funds, which makes it attractive as a discreet store of value.

However, gold is illiquid for small transactions. Double-digit spreads in Argentina and notable premiums in Turkey during stress periods mean that getting in and out of physical gold is expensive compared with digital options.

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The Rise of USDT as the “Digital Dollar”

Global Context: USDT’s Dominance

At the global level, USDT is the primary stablecoin that people in emerging markets interact with:

USDT’s circulating supply roughly doubled between late 2023 and late 2025, from under $100 billion to around $180 billion.
Even though its market share among stablecoins has dipped as competitors grew, in absolute terms USDT’s usage continues to rise.

Tether’s leadership describes this shift clearly: USDT has evolved from primarily a trading pair on exchanges to being the most widely used digital dollar in everyday transactions, especially in emerging markets. Turkey and Argentina are frequently cited as prime examples.

Argentina: Stablecoins as Everyday Money

Recent data and field reports paint Argentina as one of the most stablecoin-centric economies on earth:

Regional analysis places Argentina at or near the top of Latin America by crypto value received.
A large majority of Argentina’s crypto transaction volume is in stablecoins, significantly above the global average, with USDT accounting for a dominant share.

Surveys and exchange data point to an especially strong role among young people:

Millions of Argentines use crypto in their daily routines.
A substantial share of people aged 18–35 rely on crypto wallets as a key financial tool, not just for speculation but for saving and payments.

Infrastructure is already retail-grade in major cities:

Many stores accept stablecoin payments via QR codes, third-party apps, or crypto-linked cards.
There are thousands of OTC points that convert between cash and stablecoins.

This makes USDT not only a savings asset but also a medium of exchange — something gold rarely is in modern Argentina.

Turkey: From Gold Bars to USDT/TRY Pairs

Turkey’s crypto boom is also tightly tied to dollar-pegged stablecoins:

Lira-to-crypto trading volumes have increased several-fold since 2021, pushing Turkey into the global top tier for crypto transaction volume.
USDT/TRY has regularly been among the highest-volume trading pairs on major exchanges.
On Turkey’s largest local platforms, a large share of Bitcoin trades are now paired with USDT rather than lira.

Demographics again matter:

The majority of Turkish crypto investors are 18–44.
A very large chunk of them are in the 18–30 bracket, and female participation in the youngest age group is approaching parity with men in some surveys.

So in both Turkey and Argentina, when you look specifically at younger users, you see two patterns:

Gold remains culturally important, especially in families and older cohorts.
The actual financial tool Gen-Z uses day-to-day to escape inflation is increasingly USDT, not physical gold.

Why Gen-Z Prefers USDT Over Physical Gold Bars

Accessibility and UX

Gold requires cash, a jeweler or bullion dealer, and often large minimum amounts. Stablecoins can be bought in minutes with a phone and a local on-ramp:

Turkey has a dense ecosystem of exchanges with lira pairs and Turkish-language interfaces.
Argentina has widely used apps and regional exchanges, plus OTC shops and card products that let users spend stablecoins as local currency.

For a 20-year-old with a smartphone, opening a wallet and buying $50 of USDT is far easier than finding a trusted gold dealer and dealing with physical storage.

Liquidity, Divisibility, and Fees

Physical gold in Argentina and Turkey comes with meaningful frictions:

In Argentina, gold jewelry and small bars often carry buy–sell spreads of 10–15% or more.
In Turkey, during periods of high demand, physical gold has traded at noticeable premiums to global prices.

USDT, by contrast:

Trades near $1 with tight spreads on major local and global exchanges.
Can be sent peer-to-peer in tiny denominations (e.g., $5 or $10) without the friction of melting, weighing, or assaying metal.

For Gen-Z savers trying to protect salary or side-gig income of a few hundred dollars a month, those fee and divisibility differences matter more than gold’s multi-decade track record.

Integration With Income and the Digital Economy

Young Argentines and Turks are disproportionately represented in online work: freelancing, remote jobs, gaming, content creation, and software.

Stablecoins slot directly into that:

Remote workers and freelancers are increasingly paid in stablecoins like USDT or USDC and route earnings directly into digital wallets rather than local bank accounts.
In Turkey, exchanges and some fintechs offer crypto-related products that bridge between lira salaries and USDT, often within the same app environment.

A 23-year-old developer can be paid in USDT, hold it as savings, swap a portion into local currency for rent, and never touch physical gold.

Cross-Border Mobility

Gold does not cross borders easily; it is bulky, detectable, and often subject to customs restrictions. Stablecoins move at the speed of the internet.

This is especially relevant in countries with capital controls or tight FX regimes:

Argentina has repeatedly imposed capital controls and complex FX rules; stablecoins and USDT–local currency pairs on exchanges function as a proxy FX market.
In both countries, younger users can send and receive USDT internationally within minutes, something that is impractical with physical metal.

For Gen-Z that wants the option to move, study abroad, or work for foreign employers, portable digital dollars are more attractive than heavy bars.

What Gold Still Does Better, and USDT’s Specific Risks

It is important to be clear: gold has properties that USDT cannot replicate.

Gold’s Advantages

No issuer risk: Gold is a physical commodity. It does not depend on a corporate issuer, banking partners, or reserve management.
No smart-contract or exchange risk: Physical bars are not subject to hacks or protocol failures (though custody and theft risks remain).
Long historical role: Gold has centuries of use as a store of value and as a reserve asset for central banks.

For older savers in Turkey and Argentina, these attributes remain decisive. The enormous under-the-mattress gold holdings in Turkey are a clear sign that physical metal is not going away.

USDT-Specific Risks

USDT, and centralized stablecoins generally, come with a different risk profile:

Issuer and reserve transparency: Users must trust that Tether holds sufficient liquid dollar-based reserves to redeem all outstanding tokens.
Regulatory risk: New regulations in major jurisdictions (for example in the EU) have already pushed some exchanges to adjust or limit USDT pairs.
Platform and custody risk: Many Gen-Z users hold USDT on centralized exchanges or fintech apps, which introduces counterparty risk similar to banks.

For a Turkish or Argentine 20-year-old, these risks may feel abstract compared with the very visible daily erosion of local purchasing power. But over a multi-decade horizon, they matter.

What This Shift Tells Us About the Future of Savings

Taken together, the data show a clear pattern:

In Turkey, households still store an enormous amount of wealth in physical gold, yet tens of millions of mostly younger users now actively trade and hold USDT, with USDT/TRY one of the country’s most important trading pairs.
In Argentina, citizens still hold vast sums in physical dollars and other hard assets, but stablecoins now account for the majority of crypto transaction volume, and a significant share of 18–35-year-olds rely on crypto wallets as their primary financial tool.
Globally, USDT remains the dominant “digital dollar,” with supply roughly doubling in two years and adoption concentrated in emerging markets such as Turkey and Argentina.

For Gen-Z in these countries, gold is increasingly something their parents and grandparents hold in safes and jewelry boxes. Their own hedge against inflation and currency collapse is USDT on a phone: liquid, divisible, globally mobile, and plugged into the online economy.

Physical gold still has a role, especially as a hedge against systemic or issuer risk. But the everyday battle against high inflation is now being fought with stablecoins, not bars.

In that sense, “gold vs. stablecoins” is not a clean substitution. What is happening in Turkey and Argentina looks more like layering:

Older wealth: physical gold and paper dollars under the mattress.
New wealth and Gen-Z income: USDT and other stablecoins in digital wallets.

Conclusion

Gen-Z in Turkey and Argentina is not abandoning gold overnight, but their default defensive asset is no longer a bar in a safe, it is a stablecoin in a mobile wallet.

In high-inflation, low-trust monetary systems, USDT delivers what young people need most: speed, divisibility, portability, and easy integration with online work.

Gold still matters as long-horizon, issuer-free collateral, yet it fits the habits of older generations better than the digital lives of their children.

As more income is earned and saved directly in stablecoins, the center of gravity of household savings is likely to keep shifting toward digital dollars.

That generational shift will quietly reshape how entire countries hedge against inflation and currency risk.

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FAQs:

1. Why are Gen-Z in Turkey and Argentina choosing USDT instead of physical gold?

They choose USDT because it is easier to buy, sell, and move in small amounts through a phone, while gold is harder to access, less divisible, and more expensive to trade in and out of.

2. Is holding USDT safer than keeping savings in local currency like the lira or peso?

For many young people, USDT feels safer because it is pegged to the U.S. dollar and avoids local inflation, even though it still carries issuer, platform, and regulatory risks that local cash does not.

3. How does USDT fit into the daily lives of Gen-Z compared to gold?

USDT fits directly into their daily lives because it can be used for online work payments, remittances, trading, and everyday spending via apps and cards, while gold mainly sits as a long-term store of value.

4. What are the main risks of relying on USDT as a savings tool?

The main risks are dependence on Tether’s reserves, potential regulatory changes, and the safety of exchanges or wallets, so users face counterparty and operational risk that physical gold does not have.

5. Does gold still have a role for young savers in these countries?

Yes, gold still matters as a long-term, issuer-free asset that can hedge against extreme scenarios, but Gen-Z usually holds less of it and relies more on stablecoins for flexible, day-to-day financial needs.

6. Can a combined strategy of gold and stablecoins work better than choosing only one?

A combined strategy can be stronger because stablecoins cover liquidity and digital use-cases, while gold provides a physical, long-term anchor, giving Gen-Z a diversification buffer across different types of risk.

Stablecoins vs. Gold: Why Gen-Z in Turkey and Argentina Prefers USDT Over Physical Bars