Dollars when you need them.

Dollars in a bank at home depend on that bank and on that country's rules. Digital dollars in Ficha aren't in any bank at home. Below are the cases where dollars in banks were rationed, frozen or turned into local money, and what digital dollars don't do.

When dollars are rationed.

Governments defending a falling currency have limited who can buy dollars, how many, and how they can be used.

2011 to 2015
Argentina. From October 2011, buying dollars to hold needed the tax agency's approval, and in July 2012 the central bank suspended the rule that let individuals buy them. It allowed them again in January 2014, in line with the income each person had declared. The controls ended in December 2015.
2015 to 2019
Greece. In the euro area, banks shut for three weeks from June 2015, and cash machines paid out at most 60 euros a day. The cash limit lasted until October 2018, and the last limits on transfers abroad ended in September 2019.
2019 to 2025
Argentina. From September 2019, individuals needed the central bank's approval to buy more than 10,000 dollars a month at the official rate, and from October, more than 200. A parallel rate grew beside it: more than 150% above the official one in late 2023, according to the IMF. Individuals could buy dollars without approval again from April 2025.
2022 to 2024
Egypt. From February 2022, dollars became hard to get through banks: the IMF counted 7 to 8 billion dollars of requests for foreign currency waiting at banks. In October 2023, at least two banks stopped their debit cards working abroad, Reuters reported. In March 2024, the pound lost 38% of its value against the dollar in a day, according to the IMF.
2023 to 2026
Bolivia. From early 2023, dollars ran short, and people queued outside banks and the central bank, Reuters and AP reported. In April 2023 the regulator took over Banco Fassil, whose depositors couldn't reach their money. The government rationed foreign currency, the IMF found in 2025, and only in January 2026 did the central bank begin returning dollars in cash to savers, smallest balances first.

From July 2024 to June 2025, more than half of what people in Argentina bought with pesos on the crypto exchanges Chainalysis tracks was digital dollars.

When a bank closes.

Banks fail everywhere. What happens next depends on who stands behind them.

March 2023
United States. Silicon Valley Bank failed. The same weekend, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC announced that all its depositors, insured or not, would have access to all of their money the next business day.
November 2026
Paraguay. The central bank took over Ueno Bank, whose solvency ratio had fallen below half the legal minimum. Its app, cards, ATMs and branches stopped, and its customers, more than 3 million by the bank's count, could no longer pay or withdraw. The deposit guarantee covers up to 75 monthly minimum wages per depositor, and the first payments were capped at about 1,700 dollars each. Above the guarantee, nothing assured savers they would get everything back.

When the government decides.

Governments have frozen deposits, turned dollars into local money at a rate they set, handed depositors shares in place of their savings, and kept money from leaving the country.

March 1990
Brazil. The day after he took office, the new president froze bank balances above a limit, in checking and savings accounts and other financial assets: about 30% of the country's GDP, according to the IMF. The money came back in 12 monthly installments, starting 18 months later.
1999 and 2000
Ecuador. In March 1999, after a one-week bank holiday, the government froze deposits. When the country adopted the dollar in early 2000, deposits were still frozen, and 16 financial institutions, holding 65% of the deposits in the country, had been taken over or closed. Many depositors waited years for their money, and most got it back with a loss, according to the IMF.
December 2001
Argentina. A decree capped cash withdrawals at 250 dollars a week per person at each bank and barred most transfers abroad: the corralito.
February 2002
Argentina. Another decree converted every dollar deposit in the country's banks into pesos, at a rate the government set. By the end of the year, the peso had lost about 70% of its value against the dollar, at the central bank's rate.
July 2002
Uruguay. After a bank holiday, a law postponed the repayment of dollar time deposits at the two state banks: a quarter within a year, the rest over the next two. Banks had lost about 45% of their deposits, according to the IMF.
March 2013
Cyprus. In the euro area, banks closed for ten days and reopened under capital controls that lasted two years. Laiki was wound down, and at Bank of Cyprus 47.5% of every deposit above 100,000 euros was turned into shares. The bail-in reached 3.8 billion euros of deposits, about a quarter of the total, and around 20,000 depositors, according to the Central Bank of Cyprus.
From 2019
Lebanon. From November 2019, banks capped withdrawals from dollar accounts, first at 1,000 dollars a week, with no law behind it, and by 2022 ordinary customers could no longer send money abroad. From June 2021, depositors could take their dollars out only gradually and in local money, at a loss of 60% to 80%, according to the World Bank. In 2022, some held up banks to get their own savings out, AFP reported.

Deposit insurance doesn't help with this: it pays when a bank fails, up to a limit, and a freeze or a conversion by decree isn't a bank failure.

What digital dollars change.

  • No bank in between

    In Ficha they aren't a deposit in any bank, so your bank closing, or a freeze on deposits, doesn't reach them. In your Wallet they move only with your key, at any hour; in Vault, no key is enough on its own.

  • Not bills in a drawer

    A theft, a fire or a counterfeit note takes cash for good. If you lose your phone, your Wallet comes back with your Apple or Google account.

  • Backed in the United States

    The digital dollars in Ficha are backed by cash and short-term US Treasuries, held by their issuer, a US company.

  • No account to open

    A phone is enough, and no bank has to accept you. Banks abroad do turn people away for where they're from: a 2022 European Banking Authority report found banks typically refusing or dropping customers linked to countries they consider high-risk.

  • Across borders, in minutes

    In a 2026 test by Italy's central bank, money sent as digital dollars reached a bank account in another country in under 20 minutes.

What they don't do.

  • They aren't a bank deposit

    No deposit insurance covers them, and no government guarantees them.

  • Their issuer can freeze them

    In any wallet, for example under a court order.

  • The key is yours

    Your Wallet depends on your Apple or Google account, so look after that account. For savings, Vault keeps them from depending on a single key.

  • They don't spend everywhere

    Where you live, you'll usually sell them for local money first, and that has a cost. Some countries restrict them.

Not everything in one place.

No way of holding dollars is safe from everything. Bills can be stolen, a bank can close or be frozen, and digital dollars can be frozen by their issuer or lost with a key. Keep them in more than one place: in Ficha, the Wallet is for everyday money and Vault for savings.

Every way to hold dollars, compared.

Sources

Checked on November 5, 2026. Paraguay's case was still unfolding that week; its figures are the ones reported then.

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