Resolution 1081 of the CNV: Digitalization Without Tokenization and the Persistence of Mining Looting in Argentina

The National Securities Commission (CNV) recently introduced Resolution 1081, presenting it as a regulatory step forward in incorporating digital assets into Argentina’s financial market.

However, various actors in the crypto-financial ecosystem and the productive sector warn that this regulation represents only superficial digitalization, lacking the fundamental principles of real tokenization and any attempt to bring transparency to the market of strategic assets such as lithium.

Digitalization or Technological Make-up?

Resolution 1081 introduces mechanisms for the registration and operation of marketable securities on blockchain technology, but without incorporating the essential elements that define modern tokenization: traceability, auditability, and open access. For specialists, the CNV has merely transferred the old financial model onto a new infrastructure, without opening opportunities for retail investors or addressing the structural problems of Argentina’s extractive system.

“Real tokenization isn’t just uploading a document to the blockchain; it’s about enabling thousands of investors to access real assets, with citizen oversight and total transparency in price formation. What the CNV has done is replicate the same corporate model, but with a digital façade,” said Pablo Rutigliano, Founder of the Latin American Lithium Chamber.

Systematic Under-invoicing: The Heart of the Looting

The concern is not only conceptual. Criminal case 3309/2023, currently in progress, revealed massive under-invoicing in lithium carbonate exports, carried out by companies that declared values far below international prices. This practice, sustained for years, is estimated to have caused multimillion-dollar losses to the Argentine state.

This evasion mechanism operates in full view of regulatory bodies and with the complicity of political sectors. “This is not about technical errors. It is a legalized looting scheme,” representatives of the sector affirm.

Meeting with the Mining Secretariat in 2024: A Missed Opportunity

On October 16, 2024, representatives of the Chamber met with the current Secretary of Mining to present direct evidence of under-invoicing. The official’s response was disappointing: instead of addressing the issue, he questioned the Chamber’s legitimacy based on its number of members.

“It was a crude attempt to divert attention. The message was clear: there is no political will to confront the mining elite. The priority remains protecting the status quo,” denounced the organization.

Atómico 3 and the Metals Market: An Innovation Blocked

Since 2020, work has been underway to develop a tokenized Metals Market based on blockchain technology, guaranteeing traceability and transparency in the commercialization of strategic resources. However, in 2022, the CNV issued an “investor alert” against the Atómico 3 S.A. project, without solid technical arguments, creating an institutional barrier to the development of this market.

Today, the case is in court under file number 36.601/25, where regulatory arbitrariness, disinformation campaigns, and political pressure to block financial innovation have been documented.

The False Regulated Innovation

Far from representing progress toward modernizing the financial system, Resolution 1081 reaffirms the concentrated and opaque model that dominates Argentine mining. There are no mechanisms for citizen oversight, no conditions for broad participation of national capital, and not even a legal definition of lithium as a commodity, an essential step for transparent price-setting in the country.

“Innovation without social impact is not innovation. It’s make-up. As long as we talk about digitalization without addressing structural evasion, what follows is continued looting,” concluded Pablo Rutigliano, Founder of the Latin American Lithium Chamber.

Lithium Is Indeed a Commodity

Despite years of resistance from the mining sector, it is now indisputable that lithium behaves as a commodity: it has an international market, growing demand, and clear reference prices. Argentina’s refusal to declare it as such has meant, according to private estimates, a loss of at least 4.3 billion dollars in recent years.

“Denying lithium’s status as a commodity has served the interests of evasion, accounting opacity, and looting. That decision, backed by broad political silence, has been deeply damaging for the country,” say representatives of the metals market.