The Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) announced this Tuesday that starting Wednesday, 10,000 and 20,000 Cuban peso bills will begin to circulate, the highest denominations ever issued in the country's history, and the reaction from Cubans was immediate: a flood of ironic comments and dark humor flooded social media.
The president of the BCC, Juana Lilia Delgado Portal, justified the measure by stating "the current conditions of prices and monetary circulation." The 10,000 peso bill features the image of Haydée Santamaría Cuadrado, in shades of gray and green, with the Casa de las Américas on the reverse side. The 20,000 peso bill displays Vilma Espín Guillois, in yellow and brown, with the Federation of Cuban Women on the back.
But what circulated the most this Tuesday wasn't the bills, but the comments.
"Ah yes, we're almost Colombians now," wrote a user in the Cibercuba post about the announcement.
Another internet user pointed directly to the cash shortage in banks: "And how are they going to give them at the bank, cut in half?"
A Cuban woman sarcastically commented on the salaries: "I imagine they now pay the salary every three months."
Some comments combined economic analysis with sarcasm. "Historically, when a country issues high denomination bills, it is usually a sign that the inflation problem is likely to be prolonged and that the economic authorities foresee it won't be resolved in the short term. So they should sit back and prepare for what's coming. Start thinking about making the million ones," wrote a user.
The paradox that Cubans pointed out the most was that of the banking system: "It's laughable. And the bank paying with 1, 3, and 5 peso bills."
Another comment, which humorously summarized the real purchasing power of the new bills, proposed an alternative redesign: "The easiest image for the 10,000 bill is a bottle of oil and a carton of eggs, since we already know what they’re good for. For the 20,000 bill, the image could be a 10-pound pack of chicken, a bag of milk, six pounds of ground beef, and two bags of bread—just make a collage and it would look spectacular."
The context underlying the humor is serious. The dollar in the informal market was trading at nearly 700 Cuban pesos at the time of the announcement, compared to 435 CUP in December 2025, which represents a depreciation of approximately 55% in just eight months.
The official annual inflation reached 20.70% in July 2026, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), although independent economists estimate that the real figure, including the informal market, is around 70% annually.
This is also the second issuance cycle of high-denomination banknotes this year. In April, the BCC had already put into circulation 2,000 and 5,000 peso banknotes, featuring images of Mariana Grajales and Celia Sánchez Manduley respectively, which did not reach the population smoothly: in June, many Cubans reported having seen them only in photos.
The official portal Cuba Travel still displayed denominations of up to 1,000 CUP at the time of the announcement, another sign of the disconnect between the regime's announcements and the reality that Cubans face every day.
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