The United States dollar reached 550 Cuban pesos (CUP) in the informal market of the island this Tuesday, according to the exchange rate recorded by elTOQUE at 07:00 in the morning.
This marks a new historical record and the first time that the U.S. dollar has reached that symbolic barrier that the market had been pursuing for days.
Informal exchange rate in Cuba Tuesday, May 19, 2026 - 06:58
- Exchange rate of the dollar (USD) to Cuban pesos CUP: 550 CUP
- Exchange rate of the euro (EUR) to Cuban pesos CUP: 625 CUP
- Exchange rate from (MLC) to Cuban pesos CUP: 407.5 CUP
The euro is trading this Tuesday at 625 CUP, while the MLC is at 407.5 CUP in the informal market.
Exchange Rate Evolution
The dollar's progression during May has been steady and relentless. The month kicked off on May 1 at 535 CUP, rose to 540 CUP on May 8, reached 543 CUP on May 11, and peaked at 545 CUP between May 12 and 13, in what was then described as a historic week of depreciation for the Cuban peso.
The rise continued: 546 CUP on May 16, 548 CUP on May 17 and 18, and this Tuesday the dollar definitively broke the threshold of 550 CUP.
In just 19 days, the currency accumulated a rise of 15 CUP, reflecting the rapid deterioration of the purchasing power of Cubans.
The gap between the informal market and the official rate of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) —which remains at 502 CUP per dollar— has already surpassed 48 pesos, a difference that highlights the structural distrust in the Cuban peso and the regime's inability to stabilize its economy.
Historically speaking, the dollar crossed the 500 CUP barrier for the first time on February 10, 2026, a milestone that elTOQUE recorded at 1:38 p.m. Cuba time.
Since December 2025, when the dollar was around 435 CUP, the national currency has lost more than 115 CUP in value in just five months.
The freefall of the Cuban peso is not a recent phenomenon. In 2020, the dollar was priced at around 42 CUP in the informal market. Since then, the peso has lost nearly 95% of its value against the US dollar, a collapse accelerated by the failed "Monetary Ordering" of January 2021, chronic foreign currency shortages, low domestic productivity, and a high dependency on imports.
The dollar is the reference currency for the daily survival of Cubans: it is used to buy food, medicine, finance emigration, and protect savings against persistent inflation.
The euro, for its part, is consolidating as the most valuable foreign currency on the island. The increasing demand is largely driven by travel to Europe and the interest of many Cubans in protecting their savings against inflation and the depreciation of the Cuban peso.
The Observatory of Currency and Finance in Cuba (OMFi) projected in February 2026 that the dollar could be around 530 CUP, with a range between 475 and 590 CUP. The market has already exceeded that central projection and is advancing toward the upper end of the predicted range.
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