Mate Is No Longer Just Drunk: Now It’s Tokenized
- Larisa - LoQueArde
- Oct 3, 2025
- 2 min read
Sounds like a joke, but it’s real: the first tokenized yerba mate in the world sold out in less than 24 hours.
Mate Before Becoming a Token
For someone outside Argentina, Uruguay, or Paraguay, mate might sound like just a weird kind of tea. But it’s not.
It’s a bitter herb brewed with hot water; some add sugar, honey, herbs, even coconut. Some use it to stay awake while studying or working. And then there are the disgusting ones who put artificial sweetener (cancer on a stick).
It’s a loyal companion: it quiets anxiety, calms, keeps you company like a cigarette for those who don’t smoke.
From psychoanalysis, you could say mate is staying to live in Freud’s oral stage. Above all, it’s a collective ritual: shared in a group with the same straw, no disgust, because what matters is the act of sharing.
I prefer it bitter, with burrito leaves.
Mate isn’t a drink: it’s identity, excuse, company, and suspended time. And that’s precisely why what happened now is so surprising…
The News That Sounds Like a Joke
A startup called R3al Blocks, together with the brand Mathienzo, launched the world’s first tokenized yerba mate production.
Each token equaled 11 real packages from a lot of 1920 packages. With a minimum investment of $20, anyone could join, choose to keep the physical yerba, or get a return in dollars.
In less than 24 hours, everything sold out.
From Smoke to Tokenized Mate: When Blockchain Stops Being Intangible
What happened with tokenized yerba mate isn’t just a curious fact: it’s evidence of how blockchain starts blending into real life. Because if a simple package of yerba can become a digital asset, then the “tech smoke” turns tangible.
That’s the force: it’s not only anecdotal, it also marks a regional milestone—a new way of imagining how local economies can fund themselves without going through traditional channels.
At the same time, it has a pedagogical side: anyone can understand it, even a grandma—one token equals one package of yerba—and suddenly the intangible becomes everyday life. Add to that the fact that it sold out in less than 24 hours, and the conclusion is inevitable: we’re facing a record, a traditional product turned financial asset that not only sold, but also proved curiosity moves faster than any marketing manual.
📎 Sources
Beyond the Technology
The powerful part isn’t only in the financial mechanism. It’s in the cultural clash.
Mate, always an excuse for gathering and oral ritual, became a global blockchain asset.
The most intimate, affective object of our daily lives is now circulating in the crypto market.
The result isn’t just investment: it’s curiosity, controversy, and conversation. And that’s where it also becomes marketing.
If yerba already got tokenized, nothing is safe.
What’s next? A tokenized asado? Croissants in NFTs?
The only certainty is: when tradition and blockchain collide, the result never goes unnoticed.
✦ At loquearde.net I’ll keep tracking these collisions between crypto, branding, and culture. Subscribe and get each fire straight to your inbox.
Nacidos Para Ser Argentos · Illya Kuryaki And The Valderramas Album: Fabrico Cuero
℗ 1991
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