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Paraguayan President Santiago Peña submitted his resignation on Nov. 5, 2026, three days after the central bank placed Ueno Bank into resolution and left roughly 3 million customers locked out of their accounts, according to crypto.news. The Chamber of Deputies was in an extraordinary session on impeachment when he delivered a recorded address.
Peña, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, had lost support inside his own conservative party earlier that day, crypto.news reported, citing Reuters. In his address he said he was stepping down with the country’s stability, social peace and the need to protect democratic institutions in mind, and that his priority was guaranteeing depositors get their money back while public resources are shielded.
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Key facts
- Ueno administered close to $850 million in public funds, according to Reuters, and its failure cut off roughly 3 million accounts in a country of 6.5 million people, Al Jazeera reported.
- The initial guarantee payments cover depositors holding no more than 10 million guaraníes, with no outstanding debts to Ueno and an active account at another domestic bank, per the central bank.
- The statutory insurance ceiling is 228.3 million guaraníes per depositor at each institution, and coverage applies to combined deposits at a bank rather than each account separately.
- Vice President Pedro Alliana would complete the presidential term if Congress accepts the resignation, under Article 234 of the Constitution.
- One Bybit seller was asking 6,942 guaraníes per USDT early on Nov. 5, about 13% above the central bank’s Nov. 4 dollar reference of 6,144.02 guaraníes, per The Cryptonomist.
How the bank failed
The Central Bank of Paraguay opened resolution proceedings on Nov. 3 after a unanimous board decision dated Nov. 2. Adjustments made during a regulatory regularization process pushed Ueno’s solvency ratio below half the required minimum. Eight executives tied to Ueno and associated companies were detained the same day, including bank president Juan Manuel Gustale and Grupo Vázquez president Miguel Vázquez, ABC Color reported.
Ueno had said in an Oct. 14 statement that it met requirements issued on June 5 and July 24, including bringing specified companies into its related-party group, adjusting consolidated exposure and selling part of a loan portfolio, and that no fines resulted. It acknowledged a separate administrative proceeding over alleged indirect financing tied to a portfolio sale while denying any breach.
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Ueno has made no public statement on the collapse, Al Jazeera reported. The outlet also quoted its Latin America editor Lucia Newman saying the accusations against Peña range from negligence to complicity in covering up insolvency, and that crowds outside Congress were pressing lawmakers to reject the resignation so he could be tried. Decrypt, citing AP, reported the lower house voted 78-0 to impeach Peña minutes after his announcement and sent the charges to the Senate.
Depositors and the dollar premium
The central bank’s payment notice set three conditions for the first group and said later groups would be announced through official channels. The regulator described its resolution role in a separate announcement: administrators are to assess the bank’s finances, preserve assets and run the process under deposit guarantee law.
Peer-to-peer USDT prices in Paraguay moved with the disruption. The 6,942-guaraní asking price reported by The Cryptonomist was an advertised selling price compared with the prior business day’s benchmark, and other listings on the same marketplace were far lower, including smaller offers near 5,000 guaraníes.
Reports differ on the public funds Ueno held: Reuters put the figure close to $850 million, while Decrypt, citing AP, said roughly $800 million including pension and health funds. Peña has denied wrongdoing and said he sold his stake in a company linked to Ueno’s owners in March 2025, according to Reuters.
Why it matters
The freeze hit savings and wages at a lender that had grown from a fintech into a mid-tier bank, and it landed in the middle of a presidential term that began in August 2023 and was due to end in 2028. Succession now depends on a congressional vote rather than an election. The episode also revived a long-running argument among Bitcoin holders about intermediaries: funds held at a bank or exchange can be locked by that institution, while self-custodied coins move only with the holder’s keys — though lost keys, theft and price swings carry their own risks, as Decrypt noted. Paraguay’s central bank has described Ueno’s failure as an isolated case.
What to watch
Congress must decide whether to accept the resignation, and Article 202 of the Constitution gives it that power. The central bank has yet to announce the later deposit payment groups. Peña’s own account of the decision was posted on X on November 5, 2026.
This article is not financial advice. Crypto and currency markets are volatile and the situation in Paraguay is still developing.
Sources: crypto.news, Al Jazeera, Decrypt
